THE-RULERS 
3F-THE-SOUTH 

SICILY- CALABRIA- MALTA 


}\ 

m 


FRANCIS  MARION  CRAWFORD 


BI^HHHHMB'WINiM4)aMHIUWMfimMHI<MMMl«tM«Ua>4tlBimiVIM)H»M«HU*Hll«IIU.I<  '•          ' 

^UlIU^-Vt^HUdfMn*:  Jtrt>Unik«tUUNIUtilMIUl(rlll«l(l'(ll!li;>u  •.•!'(>  URM.  • 


LIBRARY 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 
SANTA  BARBARA 

PRESENTED  BY 

MRS.  DONALD  KELLOGG 


THE    RULERS    OF   THE    SOUTH 


THF 


RULERS  OF  THE  SOUTH 

SICILY,    '  MALTA 


FRANCIS  MARION    <  KD 

AUTHOR   OF  "IN   THE   PALACE  OF  T+U     *  i  *    CRUCIS' 

"AVE    ROMA    IMMORTAUS, 


WITH  A   HUNDRED   ORIGINAL  DRAW 
HENRY  BKOKMAN 


IN   TWO   VOL. 
VOL.  II 


t 

TH'  9 

Lra 


3HT  23.  ip^gfiWOT   HDTAW 

AF5I8AJAO    >\JODIM    MA2  TA 


WATCH   TOWER   OF  CHARLES  THE   FIFTH 
AT   SAN    NICOLA,    CALABRIA 


THE 

RULERS  OF  THE  SOUTH 

SICILY,   CALABRIA,    MALTA 


BY 


FRANCIS  MARION   CRAWFORD 

AUTHOR   OF   "IN  THE   PALACE  OF  THE  KING,"   "VIA   CRUCIS* 
"AVE   ROMA    IMMORTALIS,"   ETC. 


WITH  A   HUNDRED    ORIGINAL   DRAWINGS  BY 
HENRY  BROKMAN 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES 
VOL.  II 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

LONDON:  MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LTD. 
IQOI 

All  rights  rcser-ued 


COPYRIGHT,  1900, 
BY   THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY. 

Set  up  and  clectrotyped  October,  1900.      Reprinted  December. 
1900. 


Nortoooti  }9uss 

J.  S.  dialling  &  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith 
Norwood  Mass.  U.S.A. 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 


VOLUME   II 

PAGE 

THE  GOTHS  AND  THE  BYZANTINES i 

THE  SARACENS      .........  70 

THE  NORMANS 124 

IN  LATER  TIMES 334 

THE  MAFIA 363 


ILLUSTRATIONS    IN    THE    TEXT 

VOLUME   II 

PAGE 

A  Cliff  at  Sorrento I 

Saracen-Norman  Court  of  the  Capuchin  Convent  at  Amalfi      .  13 

Garden  of  the  Capuchin  Convent  at  Amalfi       .         .         .  17 

Entrance  to  Grotto  Church  at  Praia  d'  Aieta,  Calabria      .  30 

Grotto  Church  at  Praia  d1  Aieta,  Calabria          ....  36 

Positano,  between  Sorrento  and  Amalfi 40 

A  Sicilian  Courtyard          ........  48 

Balcony  at  Taormina         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  51 

Bell  Tower  at  Paola  in  Calabria,  the  birthplace  of  San  Francesco 

di  Paola 76 

Cloister  of  San  Francesco  di  Paola    ....  ,86 

Cloister  of  San  Francesco  di  Paola,  seen  from  the  rear     .         .  94 
Chapel  in  the  Garden  of  San  Francesco  di  Paola      .         .         -103 

Cloister  and  Court  of  San  Francesco  di  Paola  .         .         .         .  no 
Statue  of  a  Bishop,  outside  the  Cathedral,  Palermo  .         .        .114 

Shrine  of  Saint  Michael  at  Monte  Sant1  Angelo,  Calabria         .  125 

Entrance  to  the  Church  of  San  Nicola.  Bari              .         .         .  132 

Castle  at  Monte  Sant'  Angelo   .         .         .         .         .         .  '35 

Castello  di  Maniace,  Syracuse 144 

Saracen-Norman  Window  in  the  Ospedaletti,  Trapani     .         .  149 

Statues  in  front  of  the  Church  of  San  Domenico,  Taranto        .  152 

Norman  Door  at  Trapani 155 

Ruins  of  the  Abbey  of  La  Santa  Trinita  at  Mileto    .         .        .  165 


viii  Illustrations  in  the  Text 


FACE 


Doorway  of  the  Ruined  Abbey  at  Mileto 192 

Ruins  at  Mileto .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  206 

Old  Well  at  Mileto 218 

Terrace  of  Santa  Maria  di  Gesu,  Palermo          .         .         .         .221 

Stairway  in  Courtyard  at  Taormina 245 

Cittk  Vecchia,  Malta . 249 

Fountain  at  Taormina        ........  252 

Saracen-Norman  Window  at  San  Giuliano       .         .         .         -255 

Burial-place  of  the  Norman  Pilgrims,  La  Cava  ....  257 

Mummy  in  the  Vaults  of  the  Capuchin  Convent,  near  Palermo  .  260 

Tower  of  King  Roger  at  Castrogiovanni 262 

Court  in  the  Monastery  of  La  Cava  ......  265 

Triangular  Court  in  the  Monastery  of  La  Cava          .         .         .  268 

Fountain  in  the  Moorish  Palace  of  La  Zisa,  Palermo         .         .  276 

Tomb  of  King  Roger  in  the  Cathedral  at  Palermo    .         .         .  278 

Fountain  of  the  Ninety-nine  Waterspouts.  Aquila     .         .         .  296 

Church  at  San  Bernardino,  Aquila     ......  300 

Fountain  in  the  Piazza  Palazzo,  Aquila 304 

Castle  of  Frederick  II  at  Monteleone,  Calabria.        .        .        .  308 

Column  in  the  Cloister  of  San  Giovanni  degli  Eremiti,  Palermo  318 

Tower  in  the  Castle  of  Frederick  II  at  Monteleone  .        .        .  329 

Statue  of  Saint  Urban  at  La  Cava     ......  336 

Castel  Nuovo,  Naples 341 

Cloister  of  the  Moorish  Castle  at  Ravello,  near  Amalfi     .         .  366 
Old  Houses  at  Pizzo,  Calabria,  where  Murat,  King  of  Naples, 

was  executed  in  1815         .         .        .        .         .        .        .  372 

Castle  at  Pizzo,  with  the  window  of  Murat's  Prison  .         .         .  377 
The  Place  where  Murat  was  shot  in  the  Castle  at  Pizzo    .         .381 

Outside  Wall  of  the  Moorish  Castle  at  Ravello,  near  Amalfi     .  385 


Photogravures  by  A.  W.  Elson  &  Co. 


LIST    OF    PHOTOGRAVURE    PLATES 

VOLUME    II 

Watch  Tower  of  Charles  the  Fifth  at  San  Nicola,  Calabria 

(Frontispiece) 

FACING    PAGE 

Map  of  Southern  Italy,  with  Latin  and  English  Names     .         .  i 

Norman  Church  of  San  Giovanni  degli  Eremiti,  Palermo         .  46 

Fountain  in  the  Cloister  of  the  Norman  Cathedral  at  Monreale  81 

La  Piccola  Cuba,  a  Moorish  Summer-house  near  Palermo         .  1  16 

The  Harbour  of  Messina  ........  197 

Entrance  to  the  Burial-place  of  the  Norman  Pilgrims,  La  Cava  .  251 

Mosaic  of  Christ  crowning  King  Roger,  in  the  Church  of  La 

Martorana,  Palermo    ........     266 

Moorish  Palace  of  La  Zisa,  Palermo 


Doorway  in  the  Castle  of  Frederick  the  Second,  at  Castrogio- 

vanni  ...........  298 

Cloister  of  San  Giovanni  degli  Eremiti,  Palermo     •         •         -318 

* 

Head  of  a  Modern  Sicilian,  showing  Roman  Type   .         .         .  333 

Head  of  a  Modern  Sicilian,  showing  Saracen  Type  .         .         .  358 

First  Court  of  the  Museum  at  Palermo      .....  363 

Castle  of  Sanf  Alessio,  near  Messina       .....  379 


SOUTHERN    ITALY 

SCALES 
0       10      20      30      40      60     60      70  English  Miles 


OJHXAY  i  CO-N.Y, 


The  Rulers 
of  the  South 

The    Goths    and 
the  Byzantines 


THE     short    domina- 
tion of  the  Goths  in  the 
south  is  parenthetic  rather 
than  vital,  and  came  to  an 
end  as  soon  as  the  Eastern 
Roman    Empire,    which    had 
created     it,    stretched    out    its 
still   powerful   hand  to  undo  it. 
The    collapse     of     the    Western 
Empire    had    been    very    sudden. 
In     the     chaos     produced     by    the 
arbitrary  acts  of    Ricimer,  the  Sue- 
vian  general   of   the    Roman   army, 
the    last    rivets   were    loosened    and 


- 


VOL.   II 


, 


A   CLIFF  AT   SORRENTO 
B 


2  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

the  whole  construction  tottered  to  its  fall.  Ricimer 
being  dead,  Orestes,  who  had  been  secretary  to  Attila 
the  Hun,  seized  the  power  and  created  .his  son 
emperor,  being  a  child  of  six  years  old.  This  was 
Romulus  Augustulus.  The  mercenary  troops,  under 
Odoacer,  at  once  demanded  a  third  of  Italy  for  them- 
selves, and  when  Orestes  attempted  to  oppose  their, 
demands,  he  was  killed  in  fight  and  the  child  emperor 
was  shut  up  in  a  villa  in  the  country.  Odoacer  then 
sent  the  imperial  insignia  to  Zeno,  Emperor  of  the 
East,  and  asked  for  the  right  to  administer  Italy, 
with  the  title  of  'patrician.'  Half  acknowledged, 
and  yet  never  quite  authorized,  he  governed  the 
country  for  some  time,  till  in  a  war  with  the  barba- 
rians he  took  prisoner  one  of  their  princes,  who 
escaped  and  appealed  to  Theodoric,  king  of  the 
Ostrogoths.  Theodoric  invaded  Italy  and  overcame 
Odoacer  in  a  great  battle  at  Verona  in  489.  He 
was  supported  by  the  Italian  bishops  against  Odo- 
acer, who  was  an  Arian  like  Genseric ;  and  before 
long,  in  493,  Odoacer  made  negotiations  for  peace 
and  a  division  of  the  kingdom  of  Italy.  A  feast 
was  held  to  celebrate  the  conclusion  of  hostilities, 
and  Theodoric  rendered  a  renewal  of  them  impos- 
sible by  murdering  Odoacer  at  the  table. 

In  the  fewest  possible  words,  this  is  the  history  of 
the  transition  from  the  last  days  of  the  Western  Em- 
pire to  the  Gothic  kingdom  that  followed  it,  and 


The  Goths  and  the  Byzantines  3 

which  endured  for  a  time  in  conditions  so  unfavour- 
able that  even  its  short  existence  seems  almost  inex- 
plicable. The  only  explanation  that  presents  itself  lies 
in  the  fact  that  the  Goths  were  physically  stronger 
than  the  Italians.  They  were  supposed  to  own  but 
one-third  of  the  soil  of  Italy,  but  on  the  other  hand 
they  were  the  only  soldiers  in  the  country,  and  they 
were  commanded  by  a  man  of  high  military  talent 
who  was  not  at  all  inclined  to  enter  into  small  quar- 
rels. Both  Odoacer  and  Theodoric  had  understood, 
in  fact,  from  the  first,  that  their  best  policy  would  be 
to  maintain  the  Roman  administration,  to  which  the 
people  submitted  by  force  of  habit ;  but  to  control 
it  themselves  and  to  except  all  their  Goths  and  other 
mercenaries  from  its  jurisdicti9n.  There  was,  there- 
fore, a  Gothic  law  for  the  conquerors  and  a  Roman 
law  for  the  conquered,  and  the  iron  hand  of  Theod- 
oric was  able  to  enforce  both. 

The  consequence  of  this  state  of  things  was  that 
the  administration  of  the  south  scarcely  changed  at 
all,  and  that  it  peaceably  submitted  to  the  government 
to  which  it  was  accustomed,  indifferent  to  the  fact 
that  the  sovereign  was  a  Gothic  king  instead  of  a 
Roman  emperor.  There  are  few  records  of  Gothic 
actions  in  Sicily.  When  Theodoric  married  his  sister 
Amalafrida  to  the  king  of  the  Vandals,  he  presented 
her  with  the  district  of  Lilybaeum,  which  became  Mar- 
sala, '  the  harbour  of  God,'  under  the  Saracens.  It 


4  The   Rulers  of  the  South 

appears  that  there  was  a  Gothic  garrison  there,  as 
well  as  in  Syracuse,  Palermo,  and  Messina ;  and  it 
is  certain  that  in  the  division  of  lands  some  estates  in 
Sicily  and  on  the  southern  mainland  fell  to  the  lot  of 
the  Gothic  captives  ;  but  there  is  excellent  historical 
evidence  to  show  that  there  were  practically  no  Goths 
at  all  in  the  south  when  Belisarius  landed,  in  535. 
The  fact  that  there  were  none  is  adduced  to  explain 
why  the  south  surrendered  to  the  imperial  general 
without  a  struggle. 

The  Gothic  law,  for  Goths,  was  administered  by 
counts  created  by  the  king  for  the  purpose ;  in  differ- 
ences between  Goths  and  Romans,  that  is  to  say,  free 
Italians,  the  Gothic  count  was  associated  with  a  Roman 
judge  well  acquainted  with  Roman  law.  This  fact 
implies  that  there  were  counts  in  Sicily,  at  least 
where  there  were  Gothic  garrisons,  and  a  few  letters 
are  extant  in  which  some  of  them  are  mentioned  by 
name,  and  which  deal  with  matters  of  administration. 
They  are  largely  of  the  time  of  Athalaric,  and  it  is 
remarkable  that  a  number  of  them  were  written  to 
censure  the  Gothic  officials  for  having  collected  taxes 
beyond  the  amounts  due.  There  is  ample  evidence 
that  it  was  the  intention  of  the  kings  to  treat  the 
south  well,  and  that  they  did  so ;  and  the  vast  amount 
of  corn  which  Sicily  was  able  to  send  to  Rome  in  the 
final  struggle  that  resulted  in  the  victory  of  the  Byzan- 
tines, shows  clearly  enough  that  under  Gothic  domi- 


The  Goths  and  the   Byzantines  5 

nation  the  island  recovered  from  the  ravages  of 
Genseric  with  its  usual  vitality  and  became  extremely 
prosperous.  The  instructions  given  to  the  Count  of 
Syracuse  with  regard  to  his  journeys  when  'on  cir- 
cuit/ as  we  should  say,  exhibit  a  care  for  the  people's 
interests  which  contrasts  strongly  with  the  rapacious 
methods  tolerated  in  the  days  of  Verres.  His  func- 
tions are  to  be  exercised  for  one  year,  during  which 
he  is  to  be  escorted  by  a  detachment  of  Gothic  sol- 
diers ;  the  latter  are  to  be  quartered  on  the  citizens, 
but  the  count  is  warned  that  he  is  not  to  allow  any 
rudeness  or  rough  treatment  on  the  part  of  his  men, 
who  are  everywhere  to  take  what  is  given  them  with- 
out complaint  and  with  a  modest  behaviour. 

Nevertheless  this  Gildilas,  Gothic  Count  of  Syracuse 
under  Athalaric,  seems  to  have  had  an  eye  to  his 
own  advantage,  for  we  find  him  severely  taken  to 
task  for  oppressing  the  provincials.  He  is  told  that 
he  has  received  money  for  repairing  the  walls  of  the 
city,  but  has  used  it  for  other  purposes,  and  must  now 
either  refund  it  or  execute  the  work ;  that  he  has  appro- 
priated to  the  treasury  the  property  of  natives  who 
have  died  without  heirs,  a  proceeding  only  authorized 
in  the  case  of  foreigners ;  that  he  has  made  the  costs 
of  judicial  proceedings  excessive ;  that  he  has  pre- 
sumed to  judge  cases  of  difference  arising  between 
Roman  parties,  whereas  his  jurisdiction  only  extends 
over  Goths;  that  he  has  forced  merchants  to  sell  him 


6  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

the  cargoes  of  incoming  vessels  at  a  derisory  price  ; 
and  on  the  whole  that  he  has  behaved  very  badly,  in 
a  manner  unbecoming  to  a  Gothic  count,  that  he  is 
to  remember  that  it  is  the  glory  of  the  Goths  to  pro- 
tect all  citizens,  and  that  he  must  immediately  mend 
his  ways. 

In  order  to  understand  what  there  is  to  tell  about 
the  situation  in  Sicily  at  the  end  of  the  Gothic  domi- 
nation, during  the  wars  in  which  Belisarius,  and  Narses 
after  him,  commanded  the  Byzantine  armies,  we  must 
glance  at  the  causes  of  those  wars,  which  were  fought 
by  the  Emperor  Justinian,  against  the  successors  of 
Theodoric,  for  the  possession  of  Rome.  Their  result 
may  be  described  as  a  preservation  of  Rome's  identity 
as  a  Latin  capital ;  for  if  the  Goths  had  beaten  Jus- 
tinian, as  it  at  one  time  seemed  probable  that  they 
might,  Rome  would  soon  have  ceased  to  be  a  true 
Latin  centre,  though  it  might  not  have  become  more 
really  Gothic  than  Vienna  is  German  in  our  own 
times. 

We  have  seen  that  the  powers  delegated  by  the 
Emperor  of  the  East  to  Odoacer  and  Theodoric  were 
undefined,  if  they  were  unlimited.  They  had  in  fact 
been  granted  purposely  in  such  a  manner  as  to  make 
them  revocable  at  the  emperor's  pleasure,  and  in  this 
respect  the  kingdom  of  Italy  resembled  a  feudal  hold- 
ing of  the  Middle  Ages.  Odoacer  was  a  mere  adven- 
turer and  a  general  of  mercenary  troops ;  Theodoric 


The  Goths  and  the   Byzantines  7 

was  indeed  by  right  a  king,  but  was  not  King  of  Italy 
in  any  correct  acceptation  of  the  title.  He  was,  in  the 
imperial  theory,  the  governor  of  the  country  as  long 
as  the  emperor  chose  that  he  should  remain  in  office. 
In  real  fact,  he  was  the  chieftain  of  an  army  of  giants 
who,  to  use  an  expression  proverbial  among  seamen, 
would  rather  drink  than  eat,  and  would  rather  fight 
than  drink ;  huge  men,  of  huge  appetites,  gifted  with 
a  sort  of  honourable  judgment  which  would  have  been 
common  sense  if  it  had  not  been  strongly  imbued 
with  a  spirit  half  poetic,  half  theatrical,  and  altogether 
barbaric ;  guileless  as  children,  and  yet  dangerous  as 
madmen  when  thwarted  in  their  immediate  desires  or 
when  roused  to  anger,  especially  by  any  piece  of 
deception  or  treachery  ;  spendthrifts  who  squandered 
their  possessions,  their  strength,  and  themselves,  and 
who,  speaking  figuratively,  would  swing  a  sledge- 
hammer to  crush  a  fly ;  they  were,  in  a  word,  a  tribe 
of  big,  handsome,  headstrong,  quick-tempered  boys, 
among  whom  a  man  like  Theodoric  appeared  now 
and  then,  who  knew  how  to  manage  them,  and  had 
something  of  that  cool  and  unerring  spirit  which,  at 
a  later  period,  distinguished  the  Normans  from  other 
northern  people. 

It  is  doubtful  whether  the  struggle  for  the  possession 
of  Rome  was  brought  on  by  circumstances  into  which 
questions  of  religion  entered,  but  it  is  certain  that 
the  Catholic  Church  in  Italy  stirred  up  the  people 


8  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

against  Theodoric  in  his  old  age.  He  was  an  Arian, 
but  he  did  not  behave  like  one;  on  the  contrary,  he 
favoured  the  attack  made  by  the  emperor  on  the 
Arian  Genseric,  and  had  himself  assumed  the  govern- 
ment with  the  approval  and  support  of  the  bishops, 
who  already  played  so  important  a  part  in  the  state. 
But  towards  the  end  of  his  reign  there  was  something 
like  a  religious  revival  throughout  Italy ;  there  was  at 
all  events  a  sudden  and  great  increase  of  religious 
fervour  all  over  the  country,  and  it  is  not  unreasonable 
to  suppose  that  such  a  movement,  proceeding  as  it 
did  from  a  Latin  and  Catholic  source,  should  have 
produced  some  manifestation  of  Latin  patriotism  as 
opposed  to  foreign  and  Arian  domination,  by  drawing 
the  Latin  people  more  closely  together. 

Now  Latin  patriotism  had  come  to  mean  adherence 
to  the  Eastern  Empire.  The  patriotic  sentiment  of 
Italians  was  not  for  Italy,  but  for  the  Empire  under 
which  they  had  lived  five  hundred  years,  and  the  fact 
that  its  seat  had  long  been  transferred  to  Constanti- 
nople did  not  affect  that  sentiment  in  any  great  degree. 
The  Emperor  Justin  was  as  wise  as  he  was  enter- 
prising, and  he  was  quick  to  take  advantage  of  a 
change  of  feeling  in  Italy  at  a  time  when  that  country 
had  practically  been  long  separated  from  his  dominion 
and  seemed  forever  lost  to  the  Empire.  He  was 
assured  that  to  reconquer  it  he  had  only  to  drive  out 
the  Goths,  who,  though  very  warlike,  were  by  no  means 


The  Goths  and  the  Byzantines  9 

a  military  nation,  who  could  therefore  be  beaten  by 
a  scientific  general  commanding  trained  troops,  and 
who,  moreover,  would  have  to  fight  in  the  enemy's 
country,  since  the  whole  south  and  a  great  part  of 
central  Italy  were  decidedly  in  favour  of  what  may 
well  be  called  a  restoration,  and  of  what  was  cer- 
tainly a  reoccupation.  Justin  began  to  seek  occasion 
against  Theodoric,  and  maintained  continued  relations 
with  the  Catholic  party  in  Italy. 

It  has  been  said  that  Theodoric  was  at  no  time  an 
independent  sovereign,  that  he  understood  what  he  was 
made  to  do  by  his  great  prime  minister,  and  approved, 
so  to  say,  of  his  own  actions,  but  that  he  was  nothing 
more  than  a  lay  figure  of  royalty,  wholly  directed  by 
Cassiodorus.  There  is  much  evidence  in  favour  of  this 
theory.  The  only  objection  to  it  which  suggests  itself 
to  me  is  that  Cassiodorus  was  a  Roman  by  birth,  by 
character,  and  by  education,  and  one  would  therefore 
suppose  that  if  he  had  possessed  the  directing  power 
attributed  to  him  by  some  historians  he  would  not  have 
used  it  to  widen  the  breach  between  himself  and  all  that 
distinctively  belonged  to  Rome.  Yet  he  had  served 
Odoacer  before  serving  Theodoric,  and  it  was  undoubt- 
edly owing  to  his  efforts  that  the  south  submitted  peace- 
ably to  the  Gothic  rule.  He  retired  from  political  life 
in  the  last  years  of  Theodoric's  reign,  but  he  returned  to 
serve  the  latter's  daughter  and  grandson  in  his  former 
capacity;  he  outlived  the  fall  of  the  Gothic  kingdom 


io  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

and  still  had  nearly  thirty  years  of  life  to  spend  in  the 
retirement  of  the  cloister  he  had  founded  in  his  native 
place,  Squillace,  not  far  from  Catanzaro,  in  southern 
Calabria,  near  the  sea.  There  he  composed  a  great 
part  of  his  many  books,  most  of  which  have  been 
preserved. 

The  struggle  for  the  possession  of  Rome,  which  Felix 
Dahn  has  told  in  one  of  the  most  remarkable  historical 
novels  ever  composed,  did  not  begin  until  Theodoric 
was  dead.  In  his  old  age  the  king  had  done  unworthy 
deeds,  yielding  to  the  counsels  of  courtiers  who  played 
upon  him  at  his  will ;  he  had  caused  the  great  Boethius 
to  be  put  to  death  with  horrible  tortures  and  had  be- 
headed the  equally  innocent  Symmachus,  and  it  is  said 
that  Boethius  died  because  he  protected  the  provincials 
against  the  extortions  of  the  public  officials,  a  fact 
which  shows  how  much  Theodoric's  government  had 
degenerated  in  his  later  days.  Before  his  death  Justin 
had  issued  an  edict  requiring  that  the  Arian  churches  in 
Constantinople  should  accept  the  Catholic  rite  ;  Theodo- 
ric forced  Pope  John  the  First  to  act  as  his  ambassador 
to  the  emperor  to  request  a  revocation  of  the  order. 
Justin  received  the  Pope  with  every  honour,  but  refused 
the  request,  and  Theodoric  retorted  by  imprisoning  the 
unfortunate  pontiff,  who  died  in  prison,  if  he  was  not 
actually  murdered.  In  the  same  year,  526,  and  only 
three  months  later,  Theodoric  himself  passed  away,  and 
while  the  Gothic  nation  mourned  him  and  buried  him 


The  Goths  and  the   Byzantines  1 1 

magnificently  in  Ravenna,  a  hermit  of  the  south  gravely 
assured  the  Catholic  world  that  he  had  seen  the  shades 
of  Pope  John  and  of  Symmachus  casting  the  soul  of  the 
dead  king  bound  into  the  crater  of  Volcano,  the  island 
that  lies  close  to  Lipari,  off  the  Sicilian  coast.  The- 
odoric  was  succeeded  by  his  daughter  Amalasuntha, 
for  he  left  no  son,  and  his  grandson  Athalaric  was 
but  a  boy.  In  527,  the  next  year,  Justin  died  and  was 
succeeded  by  the  great  Justinian,  his  nephew  and 
adopted  son.  Amalasuntha,  brought  up  in  the  Roman 
civilization  and  culture,  effected  a  reconciliation  with 
the  new  emperor,  but  the  Arian  Goths  hated  her,  and 
her  own  cousin  murdered  her  nine  years  after  her 
father's  death.  She  had  allowed  the  imperial  troops  to 
land  and  collect  provisions  in  Sicily  during  the  Van- 
dal war,  and  Justinian  found  it  convenient  to  avenge 
so  useful  an  ally,  since  vengeance  was  an  excuse  for 
seizing  Rome.  Sardinia  and  Corsica  had  already  de- 
clared their  allegiance  to  the  Empire,  and  Belisarius 
appeared  before  Catania  with  a  force  of  which  the 
cavalry  comprised  Huns,  Moors,  and  several  thousand 
nondescript  allies,  while  the  infantry  was  composed  of  a 
few  thousand  Isaurians.  Palermo  alone  was  defended 
by  its  Gothic  garrison,  but  Belisarius  sent  his  ships 
into  the  old  harbour,  which  was  in  the  midst  of  what  is 
now  the  city,  and  actually  hoisted  his  archers  in  boats 
to  the  mastheads  of  the  vessels,  whence  they  were 
enabled  to  shoot  over  the  low  ramparts.  Palermo  hav- 


12  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

ing  been  thus  easily  reduced,  Sicily  received  Belisarius 
and  the  imperial  power  with  open  arms,  Naples  fell  into 
his  hands  by  the  discovery  of  a  disused  aqueduct  that 
led  into  the  city,  and  the  victorious  general  advanced 
upon  Rome  itself.  The  unapproachable  Gibbon  has 
told  the  story  of  what  followed,  and  the  genius  of  Dahn 
has  adorned  it ;  to  those  who  come  after  such  writers 
nothing  remains  but  to  quote  or  to  condense  the  result 
of  their  labours.  The  Goths  chose  the  brave  Vitiges 
to  be  their  leader,  but  he  was  unable  to  prevent  Belisa- 
rius from  entering  Rome.  Such  armies  as  the  Goths 
possessed  were  scattered  throughout  their  dominions, 
whereas  the  imperial  force  was  concentrated,  well 
trained,  and  commanded  by  a  general  of  genius.  Dur- 
ing the  winter,  however,  the  Gothic  warriors  assembled 
at  Ravenna  to  the  number  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  men  and  marched  thence  through  the  open 
country  upon  Rome.  With  a  thousand  cavalry  Belisa- 
rius rode  out  to  reconnoitre  the  enemy's  position. 
Almost  before  he  realized  his  danger,  the  general  was 
surrounded,  and  a  desperate  fight  ensued  in  which  the 
leader's  life  was  only  saved  by  his  own  extraordinary 
strength  and  skill.  Instead  of  retiring  at  once  he  pur- 
sued the  Goths  to  their  camp,  and  it  was  not  until  a 
thousand  of  them  lay  dead  upon  the  field  that  Belisa- 
rius was  forced  to  retreat.  The  vast  army  of  the  Goths 
immediately  besieged  the  city,  but  Rome  was  strong, 
the  walls  of  Aurelian  made  an  almost  impregnable 


The  Goths  and  the  Byzantines  13 


SARACEN-NORMAN    COURT    OF   THE    CAPUCHIN    CONVENT   AT   AMALFI 

defence,  the  mausoleum  of  Hadrian  was  for  the  first 
time  converted  into  a  fortress,  chains  were  thrown 
across  the  river,  and  the  engines  of  war  were  immedi- 


14  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

ately  got  ready  and  planted  in  position.  Before  the 
arrival  of  Vitiges  and  the  Goths,  the  city  had  received 
from  Sicily  such  a  quantity  of  grain  as  enabled  it  to 
defy  the  terrors  of  famine,  and  during  the  fruitless 
siege,  which  lasted  a  whole  year,  it  does  not  appear  that 
the  inhabitants  suffered  any  great  hardship.  The  Goths 
brought  fascines,  scaling-ladders,  and  battering-rams 
against  the  walls,  and  wooden  towers  on  wheels ;  and 
the  Romans  opposed  these  with  all  the  military  devices 
of  antiquity,  among  which  were  enormous  catapults,  to 
provide  missiles  for  which  the  priceless  statues  on  Ha- 
drian's tomb  were  broken  into  fragments.  Belisarius 
himself  fought  from  the  walls  with  a  bow  and  arrows, 
and  so  completely  was  the  first  assault  repulsed  that  the 
Goths  determined  to  blockade  the  city,  though  it  was 
now  defended  by  scarcely  four  thousand  men-at-arms. 
Reinforcements  arrived  at  last,  which  the  Goths  be- 
lieved to  be  only  the  vanguard  of  a  great  army,  and 
they  treated  for  peace.  Their  forces  were  greatly 
diminished ;  for  a  vast  number  of  their  soldiers  had  suc- 
cumbed to  the  malarious  fever  of  the  Campagna,  while 
it  is  certain  that  the  besiegers  suffered  more  from  lack 
of  provisions  than  the  besieged.  The  Goths  at  last  gave 
up  the  siege  in  despair,  burned  their  tents,  and  retired. 
Within  a  few  months  all  that  remained  of  the  Gothic 
monarchy  in  Italy  had  taken  shelter  in  Ravenna,  and  it 
seemed  as  if  the  Gothic  cause  were  lost  beyond  all  hope. 
But  the  Gothic  kingdom  in  Italy  was  not  the  Gothic 


The  Goths  and  the  Byzantines  15 

nation,  and  the  handful  of  warlike  foreigners  who 
remained  in  the  country  had  friends  beyond  the  Alps 
both  able  and  willing  to  help  them.  Ten  thousand 
Burgundians  took  Milan  and  destroyed  it,  and  the  king 
of  the  Austrasians  descended  upon  Italy  at  the  head  of 
a  hundred  thousand  men,  who,  if  they  did  not  appear 
out  of  disinterested  friendship  for  the  Goths,  were  cer- 
tainly not  inspired  by  any  friendly  feeling  for  the  em- 
peror. They  retired,  however,  after  committing  every 
species  of  cruelty,  and  Belisarius  was  again  left  to  deal 
with  Italy  as  he  could.  He  forced  or  tricked  Ravenna 
to  a  surrender,  and  the  flower  of  the  Goths  took  service 
in  the  imperial  army.  Belisarius  now  departed  to  Con- 
stantinople with  a  vast  amount  of  spoil,  and  taking  with 
him  as  a  captive  the  brave  but  unfortunate  Vitiges. 

Nevertheless  the  end  of  the  Goths  had  not  yet  come. 
Belisarius  left  behind  him,  as  governors  of  the  recon- 
quered country  and  as  chiefs  of  the  imperial  forces,  a 
number  of  officers  to  whom  he  gave  equal  authority, 
and  most  of  whom  proceeded  to  abuse  it.  The  mistake, 
or  it  would  be  more  just  to  say  the  crime,  of  all  govern- 
ments seated  in  the  East  has  been,  and  still  is,  excessive 
financial  oppression.  For  Italy,  Justinian  appointed  a 
number  of  officers  who  were  called  '  logothetes,'  who 
acted  as  tax-gatherers  and  some  of  whom  soon  accumu- 
lated vast  fortunes  by  a  regular  system  of  embezzle- 
ment. They  did  not  confine  their  operations  to  the 
citizens  and  provincials,  but  extended  them  to  thefts 


16  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

from  the  pay  of  the  army,  for  they  acted  also  as  con- 
trollers. One  of  their  favourite  methods  for  making 
money  in  this  way  was  to  keep  down  a  great  number 
of  veterans,  who  would  be  entitled  to  an  increase  of 
pay,  by  pretending  that  the  deceased  soldiers  who  had 
held  the  higher  rank  were  still  alive,  and  keeping  their 
names  on  the  rolls  as  if  this  were  the  case.  Moreover, 
the  provincials  were  called  upon  to  render  an  account 
of  all  money  which  had  passed  through  their  hands 
under  the  Gothic  administration,  and  in  this  way  a 
great  number  of  Italians  who  had  been  in  sympathy 
with  Belisarius  were  again  turned '  against  the  emperor. 
At  the  time  of  Belisarius's  departure  in  540  only  about 
a  thousand  Gothic  soldiers  were  left  in  Italy.  Within 
a  year  their  numbers  had  so  increased  that  they  de- 
feated one  of  the  governors  near  Venice ;  and  though 
a  quarrel  for  what  was  no  longer  anything  more  than 
the  chieftainship  of  the  Goths  soon  led  to  the  murder 
of  the  chief  himself,  and  though  his  immediate  successor 
had  no  hold  upon  his  people,  they  continued  to  regain 
their  strength  at  such  a  rate  that  when  they  at  last 
chose  Totila  to  be  their  king,  they  immediately  became 
once  more  a  match  for  the  imperial  oppressor.  They 
seized  Verona,  and  Totila  pursued  the  Roman  generals 
with  a  force  of  five  thousand  men.  Before  long  Totila 
was  able  to  cross  the  Apennines,  and  in  a  battle  which 
ensued  at  a  place  once  called  Mugello,  but  of  which 
the  site  is  now  forgotten,  the  Goths  completely  routed 


The  Goths  and  the   Byzantines  17 

the  Roman  troops.     Avoiding  Rome,  Totila  crossed  the 
Tiber  and  marched  southwards  upon  Beneventum,  which 


GARDEN    OK   THE   CAPUCHIN    CONVENT   AT   AMALU 

he  destroyed  lest  it  should  harbour  an  imperial  force ; 
a  little  later  he  besieged  Naples,  which  was  defended 


i$  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

only  by  a  thousand  men.  Justinian  now  appointed  a 
praetorian  prefect  of  Italy,  to  whom  he  intrusted  the 
supreme  power  over  all  his  forces ;  but  this  officer  lin- 
gered in  Syracuse  while  another  general  failed  to  relieve 
Naples,  and  the  squadron  with  which  he  arrived  there 
was  seized  by  the  Goths.  It  was  winter  when  the 
prefect  sailed  from  Syracuse,  and  his  fleet  perished  in 
a  storm  within  sight  of  Naples,  amid  the  cries  and 
lamentations  of  the  people  who  were  assembled  on  the 
walls.  The  city  now  surrendered,  and  Totila  dismantled 
the  fortifications,  though  he  treated  the  inhabitants  with 
great  kindness.  All  sense  of  discipline  was  lost  in  the 
imperial  armies ;  the  generals  gave  themselves  up  to 
a  licentious  existence  in  the  cities  which  they  still  held, 
the  soldiers  of  Justinian  plundered  the  country,  and  the 
emperor  was  soon  informed  that  it  was  no  longer  possi- 
ble to  hold  Italy.  Totila  wrote  a  sort  of  open  letter  to 
the  Roman  Senate,  boldly  stating  that  it  was  his  purpose 
to  rescue  Italy  from  her  tyrants,  and  copies  of  the  writ- 
ing were  posted  in  the  Forum  and  in  the  chief  streets 
of  Rome  for  the  people  to  read.  Yet  the  Romans  did 
not  see  fit  to  open  their  gates  to  him,  and  he  therefore 
advanced  with  the  greater  part  of  his  army  to  take  it 
by  siege.  This  happened  in  the  year  544. 

Meanwhile,  by  an  extraordinary  concatenation  of 
intrigue  and  misfortune,  Belisarius  had  been  utterly 
disgraced  and  the  command  of  the  Eastern  armies  had 
been  taken  from  him.  But  in  the  moment  of  danger 


The  Goths  and  the  Byzantines  19 

it  suited  the  ends  of  the  Empress  Theodora  to  restore 
him  to  favour;  he  was  created  Count  of  the  Sacred 
Stable  and  was  informed  that  he  would  be  permitted  to 
fight  Totila  and  the  Goths  in  Italy  on  condition  that  he 
would  ask  for  no  funds  from  the  imperial  treasury. 
It  was  with  the  greatest  difficulty  that  he  succeeded  in 
raising  a  force  of  volunteers  in  Thrace,  with  whom  he 
crossed  over  to  Ravenna,  intending  to  march  at  once 
towards  Rome.  But  everywhere  he  found  the  Goths 
opposed  to  him,  the  imperial  troops  were  defeated  on 
the  shores  of  the  Adriatic,  and  after  fortifying  the 
little  city  of  Pesaro,  Belisarius  took  refuge  in  Ravenna, 
whence  he  sent  a  desperate  appeal  to  Justinian.  After 
a  long  time  help  came,  indeed,  but  the  relieving  armies 
were  commanded  by  generals  who  secretly  hated  Beli- 
sarius. Meanwhile,  in  545,  Totila  had  begun  the  siege 
of  Rome,  which  was  commanded  by  Bessas,  the  most 
corrupt  of  the  governors  under  whom  Italy  had  suffered. 
His  defence  is  a  record  of  inactivity,  and  Belisarius, 
checked  at  every  turn,  was  unable  to  relieve  him.  The 
city  had  not  been  previously  provisioned,  as  it  had  been 
for  the  former  siege,  and  was  driven  to  the  last  extremity 
of  famine.  Dogs  and  mice  were  eaten  and  were  re- 
garded as  luxuries,  and  the  dead  bodies  of  horses  and 
mules  were  sought  for  with  avidity.  The  people 
plucked  the  nettles  which  grew  about  the  walls,  as  they 
still  do,  and  boiled  them  for  food,  and  when  all  else 
failed  they  began  to  devour  each  other. 


2O  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

The  citizens  sent  an  embassy  to  the  Gothic  king 
and  chose  as  their  representative  the  deacon,  Pelagius, 
who  was  made  Pope  nine  years  later.  Totila  treated 
him  with  profound  respect,  but  before  he  had  spoken 
refused  to  grant  three  requests  which  he  expected 
the  churchman  to  make.  He  declined  beforehand  to 
pardon  Sicily  for  having  gone  over  to  the  emperor 
and  having  supplied  Rome  with  corn,  to  leave  the 
walls  of  Rome  standing,  and  lastly,  to  surrender  the 
slaves  who  had  fled  to  him  from  their  Roman  owners. 
Pelagius,  disappointed  by  Totila's  tone,  refused  to 
ask  anything  else ;  he  returned  into  the  city  and 
the  frightful  state  of  siege  continued.  The  inhuman 
Bessas  at  last  sold  to  the  non-combatants  a  permis- 
sion to  escape  if  they  could,  and  most  of  those  who 
attempted  it  perished  by  famine  or  the  sword. 

Meanwhile,  after  much  hesitation,  Belisarius  and 
the  Byzantine  leaders  sailed  from  Durazzo,  and  Beli- 
sarius reached  the  mouth  of  the  Tiber,  while  one  of 
the  leaders  inflicted  a  defeat  upon  the  Goths  near 
Reggio.  With  consummate  skill  Belisarius  made  his 
preparations,  seized  Portus,  and  would  perhaps  have 
relieved  Rome  but  for  the  foolish  blunder  of  a 
colleague,  who  attacked  Ostia  at  the  wrong  moment, 
failed,  and  was  taken  prisoner.  Belisarius  lost  his 
presence  of  mind,  retreated  immediately,  and  soon  fell 
ill  of  a  fever.  Thereupon  certain  Isaurian  soldiers  in 
Rome  betrayed  the  Asinarian  Gate  to  the  Goths,  and 


The  Goths  and  the  Byzantines  21 

the  whole  Gothic  army  marched  in  without  striking  a 
blow,  while  the  evil  Bessas  fled  with  his  army,  and 
in  such  haste  that  he  left  his  ill-gotten  treasure  behind 
him.  The  Goths  were  again  masters,  but  in  spite  of 
his  previous  threat  Totila  did  not  destroy  Rome,  being 
moved  to  moderation  by  a  letter  from  Belisarius,  who 
asked  the  barbarian  king  whether  he  would  not  rather 
be  remembered  in  future  ages  as  the  preserver  of  the 
greatest  city  in  the  world,  than  as  its  destroyer.  He 
had  already  torn  down  one-third  of  the  walls,  but 
he  now  desisted  from  further  destruction,  evacuated 
the  defenceless  city,  and  withdrew  his  army  to  the 
Alban  hills.  These  things  happened  at  the  end  of 
the  year  546.  Six  weeks  later  Belisarius  reoccupied 
Rome,  and  repaired  the  walls  in  a  fortnight  with  such 
materials  as  he  could  collect  from  the  ruins.  Totila, 
enraged  at  learning  that  the  city  was  again  a  strong- 
hold, returned  to  attack  it  and  was  thrice  repulsed. 
He  fell  back  upon  Tivoli,  with  his  discontented  army, 
and  rebuilt  the  citadel  he  had  before  destroyed. 

The  stupendous  conflict  for  the  possession  of  Rome 
was  not  even  now  at  an  end,  and  though  Totila 
longed  to  be  revenged  upon  the  south  for  its  adhe- 
rence to  the  imperial  cause,  he  only  succeeded  in 
taking  the  little  fortress  of  Rossano,  near  the  site  of 
ancient  Sybaris,  in  spite  of  the  efforts  made  by  Beli- 
sarius to  relieve  it.  The  Byzantine  general  was  ren- 
dered almost  powerless  by  Justinian's  refusal  to  supply 


22  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

him  with  funds  and  men,  and  in  the  following  year, 
549,  he  returned  to  Constantinople.  He  had  not  ar- 
rived there  before  Perugia,  which  had  been  besieged 
for  three  years  by  a  detachment  of  Totila's  troops, 
surrendered  at  last,  and  the  king  at  once  proceeded 
to  besiege  Rome  again.  Garrisoned  now  by  picked 
troops,  it  might  have  resisted  long ;  but  the  soldiers 
had  already  mutinied,  in  the  previous  year,  because 
their  pay  was  in  arrears,  and  the  promises  made  to 
win  back  their  loyalty  had  probably  not  been  fulfilled : 
from  the  walls  the  men  could  see  the  rich  dress  and 
accoutrements  of  those  whom  Totila  had  rewarded 
for  betraying  the  city  the  first  time ;  they  hesitated, 
discussed  among  themselves,  and  decided  the  fate  of 
Rome  to  their  advantage.  The  gate  of  Saint  Paul 
was  opened  to  Totila  in  the  night,  and  once  more  he 
entered  without  striking  a  blow.  In  the  short  fight 
that  followed  most  of  the  loyal  garrison  were  slain, 
but  a  few  hundreds  took  refuge  in  the  Mausoleum 
of  Hadrian  and  were  starved  at  last  to  an  honourable 
surrender.  Instead  of  destroying  the  city,  Totila  now 
set  about  rebuilding  it,  repopulating  it,  and  stocking 
it  with  provisions ;  and  he  sent  an  embassy  to  Justin- 
ian to  propose  a  peace.  Justinian  would  not  even 
receive  the  ambassadors;  though  the  north  of  Italy 
was  now  practically  in  the  hands  of  the  Goths,  Rome 
was  theirs,  and  Totila  was  able  to  turn  southwards  at 
last,  to  satisfy  his  desire  for  vengeance  upon  Sicily. 


The  Goths  and  the   Byzantines  23 

In  the  beginning  of  550  Reggio  was  forced  to  sur- 
render. Totila  had  already  crossed  the  straits,  -and 
for  nearly  two  years  he  ravaged  Sicily  without  mercy, 
and  collected  together  a  vast  amount  of  plunder.  Pro- 
copius  dismisses  Totila's  deeds  during  this  time  with 
a  single  short  sentence,  saying  that  the  Goths  then 
devastated  almost  all  Sicily  without  opposition ;  but 
it  is  not  hard  to  imagine  the  horrors  that  attended  his 
long  stay  in  the  country.  Dahn,  Holm,  and  Hodgkin 
have  extolled  the  character  of  the  Gothic  king,  prais- 
ing his  generosity  towards  his  enemies  when  he  was 
the  victor,  his  steadfast  purpose  and  courage  in  adver- 
sity, his  dignified  bearing,  his  gentleness  to  the  women 
of  the  vanquished,  and  the  admirable  control  which 
he  exercised  over  his  savage  soldiers  even  in  moments 
when  they  could  hardly  have  been  blamed  for  some 
excess.  But  neither  these  historians  nor  those  from 
whom  they  have  derived  their  information  have  con- 
cealed the  fact  that  Totila,  like  Theodoric,  was  sub- 
ject to  fits  of  anger,  under  the  influence  of  which  he 
sometimes  exhibited  barbarous  cruelty  ;  that  he  more 
than  once  caused  a  prisoner  to  be  horribly  mutilated, 
cutting  off  his  hands,  his  nose,  his  ears,  and  even 
tearing  out  his  tongue.  It  is  true  that  these  occa- 
sions were  rare,  and  the  provocation  was  often  great ; 
but  he  was  a  hot-tempered  man  who  felt  he  had  a  right 
to  act  barbarously  when  his  anger  was  just,  and  who 
remembered  injuries  long  and  resentfully.  He  had 


24  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

never  forgiven  Sicily  for  the  help  it  had  rendered 
Rome  against  him,  he  had  expressly  refused  to  par- 
don the  Sicilians  when  Pelagius  came  to  him  as 
ambassador,  and,  now  that ,  Rome  was  his  once  more, 
now  that  he  had  regained  possession  of  all  Italy,  and 
that  Belisarius  had  been  recalled,  he  gave  the  rein  to 
his  fury  and  turned  his  wild  soldiers  loose  upon  the 
peaceable  islanders.  It  is  clear  that  he  had  no  inten- 
tion of  holding  Sicily ;  he  understood  too  well  that 
with  the  small  army  at  his  command  it  would  have 
been  absolutely  impossible  to  extend  his  power  perma- 
nently so  far.  Had  he  intended  to  annex  the  island, 
he  would  certainly  not  have  passed  by  Messina  with- 
out reducing  it  to  submission.  His  object  was  to 
exact  compensation  for  an  injury,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  make  it  impossible  for  the  Sicilians  to  help 
the  emperor  as  they  had  helped  him  before.  So  far 
as  we  are  able  to  judge,  he  set  to  work  with  the  delib- 
erate purpose  of  so  crippling  the  island's  resources  as 
to  make  its  recovery  within  a  few  years  almost  an 
impossibility.  We  read  of  no  redeeming  acts  of  mercy 
on  his  part  during  this  time ;  we  do  not  hear  that  he 
offered  the  islanders  the  alternative  of  serving  under 
his  standard ;  it  is  not  stated,  as  it  is  so  often  in  the 
accounts  of  his  other  campaigns,  that  he  spared 
women  and  children  and  abstained  from  useless 
bloodshed  :  Procopius  briefly  says  that  Totila  laid 
waste  the  island,  and  we  know  that  his  raid  upon  it 


The  Goths  and  the  Byzantines  25 

lasted  nearly  two  years.  He  had  ships  at  his  com- 
mand which  he  must  have  loaded  again  and  again 
during  that  period  with  the  rich  spoils  of  the  south, 
transferring  the  movable  wealth  of  the  island  to  the 
strong  points  he  held  in  Italy  ;  he  took  not  only  the 
corn,  the  gold,  and  the  silver,  but  he  carried  off 
the  herds,  the  flocks,  and  the  horses  in  a  wholesale 
spoliation,  the  like  of  which  Sicily  had  probably  never 
suffered  before.  It  must  have  been  a  reign  of  terror. 
He  garrisoned  the  stronger  towns,  such  as  Syracuse, 
Palermo,  and  Lilybaeum.  Some  of  the  cities  in  which 
there  were  imperial  troops  had  indeed  resisted  him, 
•  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Sicilians  did  what 
they  could  to  defend  themselves  in  the  hope  of  speedy 
assistance  from  Constantinople ;  but  all  resistance  was 
useless.  That  he  maintained  some  kind  of  method  in 
his  mode  of  plundering  is  evident  from  the  fact  that 
he  had  created  a  quaestor  or  treasurer  in  the  person 
of  Spinus,  a  Roman,  who  was  destined  to  liberate  the 
island  at  last  from  the  presence  of  the  insatiable 
Goths.  It  appears  that  a  Roman  force  was  still  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Catania,  of  which  the  walls  had 
been  destroyed,  and  that  this  Spinus,  who  chanced 
to  be  within  the  city,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  impe- 
rialists. Totila,  being  most  anxious  to  set  him  free, 
offered  to  give  in  exchange  for  him  a  noble  Roman 
lady  whom  he  held  captive,  but  the  Romans  objected 
that  a  woman  was  not  an  equivalent  for  so  distin- 


26  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

guished  a  personage  as  a  quaestor.  In  fear  of  his 
life  Spinus  promised  the  Romans  that  he  would  per- 
suade Totila  to  evacuate  Sicily  with  the  whole  Gothic 
army.  The  Romans  required  him  to  bind  himself  by 
an  oath,  and  they  sent  him  to  the  Goths,  keeping  his 
wife  as  a  hostage.  As  soon  as  he  came  into  Totila's 
presence,  Spinus  began  to  assure  him  that  the  Goths 
were  making  a  great  mistake  in  remaining  in  the 
island  after  having  completely  plundered  it,  merely  in 
the  hope  of  taking  a  few  small  places  that  held  out 
against  them ;  and  he  said  that  he  had  just  heard  that 
a  large  imperial  force  was  already  in  Dalmatia,  that 
it  would  proceed  thence  immediately  to  Liguria,  and. 
that  it  would  be  an  easy  matter  for  the  enemy  to 
make  a  descent  upon  the  Goths  there,  and  to  carry 
off  their  wives  and  children  and  all  their  possessions. 
It  would  be  better,  he  said,  to  oppose  this  plan  by 
wintering  in  that  region,  and,  moreover,  if  Totila  con- 
quered the  imperialists  there,  it  would  not  be  hard 
for  him  to  invade  Sicily  again. 

Whether  the  Gothic  king  was  only  weary  of  plunder 
and  irregular  warfare,  or  whether,  as  Procopius  says, 
he  was  really  moved  by  the  argument,  which  was 
sound  enough,  it  is  hard  to  determine ;  he  did,  how- 
ever, leave  Sicily  almost  immediately,  after  placing 
garrisons  in  four  of  the  strongest  points.  Having 
loaded  a  number  of  vessels  with  booty,  he  embarked 
his  troops,  apparently  from  Catania,  and  crossed  the 


The  Goths  and  the  Byzantines  27 

straits  again  to  Italy,  leaving  destruction  and  famine 
behind  him.  This  was  in  551. 

He  never  returned.  The  man  who  was  destined  to 
drive  the  whole  Gothic  army  to  final  ruin  was  already 
on  his  way  to  the  Italian  shore,  well  provided  with 
all  that  he  could  need,  with  men  and  abundant  money. 
He  was  the  old  Narses,  once  the  favourite  groom  of 
the  bedchamber,  who  had  become  grand  chamberlain, 
and  whose  beardless,  wrinkled  face  and  sexless  looks 
masked  the  mind  of  a  great  statesman  and  the  heart 
of  a  fearless  soldier.  The  young  and  great-limbed 
Goth  may  have  smiled  at  the  thought  of  being 
opposed  to  an  aged  eunuch,  a  small  wizened  creature 
of  seventy-five  years ;  but  Totila's  own  days  were 
numbered,  and  in  less  than  two  years  the  terrible 
remnant  of  humanity  destroyed  him  and  his  suc- 
cessor and  all  their  armies,  and  drove  the  handful 
of  survivors  out  of  Italy  forever. 

The  end  of  the  long  struggle  was  short  and  quick. 
On  hearing  that  Narses  was  appointed,  Totila  pressed 
the  siege  of  Ancona,  which  had  lasted  long,  and  in 
Rome  he  made  frantic  efforts  to  increase  his  popularity 
by  recalling  the  Roman  senators  and  hastening  the 
rebuilding  of  the  city.  At  the  moment  when  Ancona 
was  about  to  fall  an  imperial  fleet  appeared  a  few 
miles  to  the  northward,  engaged  the  Gothic  ships, 
destroyed  most  of  them,  and  forced  the  Goths  to 
burn  the  rest.  Masters  of  the  sea,  the  imperialists 


28  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

seized  Sicily  again  under  Artabanes  the  Armenian. 
In  the  north  the  Franks  took  advantage  of  Totila's 
defeat  to  lay  their  hands  on  all  they  could  take,  but 
were  as  ready  as  the  Goths  to  oppose  the  imperial 
army.  Meanwhile  the  main  body  of  Narses'  army 
arrived,  a  host  made  up  of  all  the  varied  elements 
controlled  by  the  Eastern  Empire,  comprising  many 
Lombards  and  many  Huns  and  thousands  of  warriors 
from  minor  tribes,  but  all  perfectly  controlled  by  the 
genius  of  the  general,  and  all  thirsting  for  Gothic 
blood  and  Italian  spoil.  They  outflanked  and  out- 
fought their  opponents,  and  marched  southwards 
through  the  Apennines  by  the  Flaminian  Way. 

There  Totila  met  them  and  came  to  his  end.  Many 
have  described  the  great  battle,  telling  how  the  im- 
perial army  spread  out  to  the  right  and  left,  and 
caught  and  crushed  the  Gothic  cavalry  when  it 
made  its  great  charge  upon  the  centre.  The  incidents 
of  that  day,  the  duels  of  chiefs,  the  wild  advances, 
the  furious  fighting  round  the  little  hill  that  was 
the  key  of  the  field,  the  splendid  riding  of  Totila 
and  his  obscure  death,  all  these  things  are  more  like 
the  tale  of  a  Homeric  battle  fought  in  an  earlier 
world  than  the  romantic  encounters  of  chivalry  to 
which  some  writers  have  compared  them.  Indeed, 
the  battle  of  the  Apennines  was  almost  the  last  of 
those  that  belong  to  ancient  days. 

One  more  such  contest  was  to  be  fought,  and  was 


The  Goths  and  the  Byzantines  29 

to  be  the  very  end  of  the  Gothic  episode ;  but  before 
it  came  Narses  had  accomplished  the  greater  part  of 
his  work  in  Italy.  He  took  Rome  with  ease,  after 
what  could  not  be  called  a  siege ;  many  of  the  Gothic 
fortresses  surrendered,  and,  though  the  Goths  had 
elected  their  bravest  warrior,  Teias,  to  be  king,  he 
soon  saw  that  nothing  was  left  to  him  but  to  die  for  the 
cause  that  was  already  reduced  to  the  last  extremity. 
In  the  reign  of  Justinian  Rome  had  been  five  times 
taken,  and  the  keys  of  the  city  were  now  sent  to  him 
again,  while  Narses  drove  the  remnant  of  the  Goths 
steadily  southwards. 

The  hunted  army  encamped  at  last  by  the  bay  of 
Naples,  at  the  foot  of  the  volcano  and  on  the  side 
towards  Castellamare,  south  of  the  little  stream  of  the 
Sarno,  and  the  remains  of  their  fleet  brought  them 
provisions.  Narses  encamped  on  the  other  bank  of  the 
river  and  waited,  for  the  Goths  had  fortified  the  bridge 
and  he  had  no  ships.  He  knew  also  what  despairing 
men  could  do,  and  he  would  not  attack  them  until  he 
was  sure  that  the  struggle  would  be  short  and  final,  or 
until  they  attacked  him ;  and  meanwhile  he  corrupted 
the  commander  of  their  ships.  When  these  had  been 
betrayed  into  his  hands,  the  Goths  retired  a  little 
way  further  inland,  to  an  eminence  now  called  Monte 
Lettere. 

All  authors  who  have  described  this  final  battle  have, 
as  is  usual  in  accounts  of  the  Gothic  war,  taken  their 


30  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

material  from  Procopius.     It  may  interest   the  reader, 
therefore,    to    read    a    literal    translation    of    his   own 


ENTRANCE   TO   GROTTO    CHURCH    AT   PRAIA    !>'  AIETA,    CALABRIA 

& " 
«. 

account,    remembering    that    he    was    a    contemporary 
and  a  soldier,  as  well  as  an  historian,  and  that  although 


The  Goths  and  the   Byzantines  31 

he  was  not  present  at  this  fight,  he  knew  the  ground 
well,  and  received  his  information  from  an  eye-witness, 
probably  from  Narses  himself. 

"At  last,"  he  says,  "a  Goth  betrayed  to  the  Romans 
all  the  enemy's  fleet,  and  innumerable  ships  arrived 
from  Sicily  and  from  other  parts  of  the  Empire.  At 
the  same  time  Narses  disheartened  the  barbarians  by 
placing  wooden  towers  on  the  river  bank.  Fearing 
these  engines,  and  suffering  from  lack  of  provisions, 
they  took  refuge  on  a  hill  near  by,  which  the  Romans 
call,  in  Latin,  '  Milk  Hill.'  The  Roman  army  could  not 
follow  them  to  that  point,  as  the  inequality  of  the 
ground  was  against  them.  But  the  barbarians  did  not 
cease  to  regret  that  they  had  ascended  thither,  when 
their  want  had  so  greatly  increased  that  they  no  longer 
had  food  for  themselves  or  their  horses.  Thinking, 
therefore,  that  it  was  better  to  die  in  battle  than  to 
perish  by  hunger,  they  attacked  the  Romans,  when  the 
latter  anticipated  nothing  of  the  sort,  and  suddenly 
made  an  unexpected  charge.  The  Romans  repelled 
the  assault  as  well  as  they  could,  considering  the  time 
and  circumstances,  their  line  not  being  marshalled 
according  to  their  generals,  nor  in  classes,  nor  by  num- 
bers, and  they  being  neither  separated  from  each  other 
in  ordered  ranks,  nor  able  to  hear  the  commands  given 
in  the  battle ;  but  as  chance  decided,  so  they  opposed 
the  enemy  with  all  their  might.  And  first  the  Goths 
dismounted,  left  their  horses,  and  stood  on  foot,  turning 


32  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

their  faces  to  the  enemy,  so  that  their  line  was  in  a  high 
position.  Then,  when  the  Romans  saw  this,  they  also 
sent  away  their  horses,  and  ranged  themselves  in  a 
similar  order  of  battle. 

"  I  shall  here,"  continues  Procopius,  "  describe  this 
memorable  battle,  in  which  Teias,  by  his  splendid 
behaviour,  proved  himself  equal,  in  warlike  bravery,  to 
any  of  the  heroes,  while  the  despair  of  their  present 
situation  imparted  courage  to  the  Goths ;  and  the 
Romans,  seeing  them  to  be  desperate,  fought  with  all 
their  strength,  ashamed  to  yield  to  inferior  numbers ; 
and  each  fell  upon  those  nearest,  most  furiously,  while 
those  on  the  one  side  sought  death,  and  those  on  the 
other  desired  praise  for  their  constancy.  The  fight 
began  in  the  morning ;  Teias,  protected  by  a  shield,  and 
brandishing  his  spear,  stood  out  with  a  few  others 
before  the  line.  When  the  Romans  recognized  him, 
they  thought  that  if  he  fell  the  combat  would  thereupon 
be  broken  off,  and  all  who  dared  united  against  him,  of 
whom  there  was  a  great  number.  All  thrust  at  him 
with  their  spears,  and  some  hurled  them,  while  he, 
receiving  their  darts  upon  the  shield  with  which  he  cov- 
ered himself,  in  a  sudden  rush  slew  many  in  their  midst. 
Seeing  his  shield  full  of  the  shafts  that  stuck  in  it,  he 
passed  it  to  one  of  the  men  armed  with  shields,  and 
seized  another.  When  he  had  spent  a  third  part  of  the 
day  thus  fighting,  it  happened  that  he  was  hardly  able 
to  move  the  shield,  in  which  twelve  darts  were  planted, 


The  Goths  and  the  Byzantines  33 

nor  to  repel  the  assailants  with  it.  Then  he  earnestly 
called  to  one  of  the  shield-armed  men,  not  moving  even 
one  finger's  breadth  from  the  spot,  not  drawing  back 
his  foot,  nor  suffering  the  enemy  to  advance.  On  the 
contrary,  he  neither  turned  round,  nor  set  his  back 
against  his  shield,  nor  bent  to  one  side,  but  as  if  he  were 
cleaving  to  the  soil,  he  stood  fast  in  his  tracks,  dealing 
death  to  the  enemy  with  his  right  hand,  parrying  the 
attack  with  his  left,  and  loudly  asking  for  the  armour- 
bearer  by  name.  The  latter,  having  brought  a  fresh 
shield,  quickly  exchanged  it  for  the  other,  that  was 
heavy  with  darts.  In  that  instant  of  time  the  king's 
breast  was  exposed  ;  as  fortune  would  have  it,  he  was 
pierced  through  by  a  javelin,  and  immediately  breathed 
his  last.  The  Romans  set  his  head  upon  a  spear,  and 
raising  it  on  high,  carried  it  about,  exhibiting  it  to  both 
armies,  that  the  Romans  might  go  forward  more  boldly, 
but  that  the  Goths  should  give  up  all  hope  and  lay 
down  their  arms.  Yet  even  then  the  Goths  would  not 
give  over  fighting,  but  persisted  until  night,  though 
they  knew  that  their  king  was  already  dead.  When 
darkness  separated  the  combatants,  both  armies  spent 
the  night  in  arms,  where  they  were.  On  the  morrow 
they  rose  together  at  dawn,  and  having  drawn  up 
their  ranks  in  the  same  way,  fought  on  until  night,  each 
determined  not  to  yield  to  the  other,  nor  to  turn  their 
backs,  nor  to  break  ground,  though  many  had  been 
slain  on  both  sides  ;  and  they  persisted  in  action,  wild 

VOL.  II  D 


34  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

with  bitter  hatred  for  each  other.  The  Goths  saw  that 
they  must  unite  for  the  end ;  the  Romans  would  not 
give  way  to  them.  At  last,  the  barbarians,  sending 
some  of  their  nobles,  made  it  known  to  Narses  that 
they  understood  that  they  were  fighting  against  God ; 
that  they  felt  His  adverse  power,  and  perceived  the  real 
nature  of  the  matter,  deducing  their  conjectures  from 
the  things  which  had  happened ;  that  they  were  willing 
to  desist  from  fighting,  not,  however,  on  condition  of 
serving  the  emperor,  but  that  they  might  go  and  live 
according  to  their  own  laws,  with  other  barbarians. 
They  asked  that  the  Romans  should  neither  molest 
their  departure,  nor  trouble  themselves  to  show  kind- 
ness, but  that  each  should  receive,  by  way  of  provision 
for  the  journey,  the  money  which  he  had  previously 
deposited  in  the  Italian  military  stations.  As  Narses 
was  deliberating  about  the  matter,  John,  the  grandson 
of  Vitalian,  induced  him  to  accede  to  the  request,  and 
to  desist  from  fighting  with  men  who  wished  to  die,  and 
not  to  make  trial  of  a  daring  born  of  the  despair  of  life, 
fatal  alike  to  those  whom  it  animated  and  to  their  oppos- 
ers.  '  For,'  said  he,  '  men  possessed  of  prudence  and 
moderation  think  that  victory  is  enough ;  but  a  vain- 
glorious eagerness  leads  surely  to  ruin.'  Embracing 
this  opinion,  Narses  consented  to  an  agreement  by 
which  the  surviving  barbarians  were  immediately  to 
evacuate  all  Italy,  taking  their  possessions  with  them, 
and  were  on  no  account  to  wage  war  further  against 


The  Goths  and  the  Byzantines  35 

the  Romans.  Meanwhile,  a  thousand  Goths  had  left 
their  camp,  and  they  reached  the  city  of  Ticinum  and 
the  region  beyond  the  Po,  some  following  Indulph,  who 
has  been  mentioned  already,  and  some  under  other 
leaders ;  the  rest  ratified  the  compact  by  taking  oath. 
And  so  the  Romans  took  Cumae  and  all  the  other  strong 
places,  and  this  was  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  year  of 
this  Gothic  war,  of  which  Procopius  wrote  the  history." 
And  here  ends  the  invaluable  chronicle  of  the  sol- 
dier historian,  without  whose  book  it  would  have  been 
quite  impossible  to  understand  the  nature  of  the  strug- 
gle for  Rome,  and  the  transition  from  the  fall  of  the 
Western  Empire  to  the  temporary  supremacy  of  Pope 
Gregory  the  Great,  and  thence  to  the  story  of  the 
Saracen  domination.  There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that 
Narses  stemmed  the  stream  of  history  in  the  battle  of 
the  Apennines  and  turned  it  at  Monte  Lettere,  and 
he  deserves  to  be  numbered  among  the  world's  great 
generals.  The  chronicler,  Agathias,  has  given  us  the 
best  brief  description  of  his  character.  "  He  was, 
above  all,  a  man  of  sound  mind,  keen  and  clever  in 
adapting  himself  to  the  times  ;  and  though  he  was 
not  versed  in  literature  nor  practised  in  oratory,  he 
made  up  for  these  deficiencies  by  the  fertility  of  his 
wit,  and  did  not  lack  words  with  which  to  express  his 
opinions,  which  was  an  extraordinary  thing  for  a 
eunuch  brought  up  among  the  follies  of  the  royal 
palace.  In  stature  he  was  small  and  of  a  lean  habit, 


36  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

but  stronger  and  more  high-spirited  than  would  have 
been  believed."  Such  was  the  general  who,  in  his 
old  age,  reduced  the  -story  of  the  Gothic  kingdom 
to  the  limits  of  a  page  in  the  history  of  mankind, 


GROTTO    CHURCH    AT    PRAIA    D'    AIETA,    CALABRIA 

and  against  whom  such  heroes  of  arms  as  Totila  and 
Teias  fought  and  gave  up  their  lives  in  vain.  Again 
the  difference  between  warlike  spirit  and  military 
genius  presents  itself,  and  while  distinguishing  be- 


The  Goths  and  the  Byzantines  37 

tween  the  two,  and  according  our  admiration  to  the 
great  general,  we  need  not  withhold  our  sympathy 
from  the  fair-haired  warriors  who  fought  so  bravely 
and  died  so  manfully  under  the  southern  sky. 

So  far  as  the  south  is  concerned,  the  story  of  the 
Gothic  domination  divides  itself  into  two  periods,  of 
which  the  first  comprises  Theodoric's  long  reign,  a 
time  of  peace  and  plenty  and  agricultural  activity, 
while  the  second  includes  about  two  years  of  robbery 
and  violence,  that  left  the  land  a  wilderness  and 
reduced  the  cities  to  desolation.  The  Goths  avenged 
themselves,  and  Narses  took  vengeance  upon  them 
in  turn  ;  but  after  him,  in  the  changing  fortunes  of 
the  miserable  Empire,  there  came  Franks  and  Lom- 
bards, and  all  Northern  Italy  was  laid  waste  with  fire 
and  sword.  One  of  their  kings,  Autharis  the  Lombard, 
rode  southward  far,  and  reached  the  straits.  For  the 
Deacon  Paul  says  that  he  went  down  by  Spoleto  to 
Benevento,  and  took  it,  and  that  he  went  through  the 
country  to  Reggio,  the  Italian  city  nearest  to  Sicily, 
and  it  is  said  that  there  a  column  stood  out  alone, 
washed  by  the  waves  of  the  sea.  Then  Autharis 
spurred  his  horse  through  the  salt  foam,  and  he  smote 
the  pillar  with  the  point  of  his  spear,  saying,  '  Here 
shall  be  the  boundary  of  the  Lombards.'  Which 
column,  says  the  good  deacon,  is  said  to  be  standing 
to-day,  and  is  called  the  Pillar  of  Autharis.  But  a 
little  further  on  he  tells  us  that  this  Autharis  died  of 


38  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

poison  at  Ticinum,  which  is  Pavia,  in  the  north ;  and 
he  died  in  590,  in  which  same  year  a  greater  man 
than  he  arose,  who  was  Pope  Gregory  the  Great.  But 
by  that  time  the  Lombards  had  taken  all  that  part  of 
Italy  from  the  Empire,  and  they  held  it,  and  made  a 
kingdom. 

As  for  the  rest  of  Italy,  the  great  struggle  had 
meant  only  that  the  East  was  trying  to  get  possession 
of  the  heritage  of  the  West,  in  spite  of  the  barbarians 
who  wanted  it  for  themselves,  since  it  no  longer  had 
any  emperor.  The  result  of  it  was  that  the  East  got 
all  Italy,  then  lost  a  part  of  it  and  kept  the  rest,  that 
is,  the  centre,  the  south,  and  Sicily,  governing  the 
provinces  by  an  exarch  residing  in  Ravenna,  leaving 
Rome  to  a  prefect  much  under  the  influence  of  the 
Pope,  when  the  latter  was  a  strong  man,  and  appoint- 
ing a  praetor  and  a  quaestor,  according  to  the  ancient 
Roman  custom,  to  govern  Sicily,  to  keep  the  peace, 
and  levy  war  taxes,  while  the  regular  revenues  of  the 
country  were  under  the  management  of  officials  con- 
trolled by  the  so-called  '  Count  of  the  Patrimony  of 
Italy.' 

At  this  time  our  notice  is  first  attracted  by  the 
existence  of  vast  estates,  in  Sicily,  Italy,  Corsica, 
Africa,  and  elsewhere,  which  were  the  property  of 
the  Catholic  Church,  and  constituted  what  were  called 
the  Patrimonies ;  that  is,  as  we  should  say,  the  Patri- 
mony of  Saint  Peter.  It  appears  that  these  lands 


The  Goths  and  the  Byzantines  39 

had  been  left  by  will  to  the  Church  of  Rome, 
before  the  final  disappearance  of  the  Western  Empire, 
and  it  was  even  then  customary  for  individuals  to 
leave  property  in  that  way,  and  also  to  the  churches 
of  other  cities.  These  estates  were  controlled  by  the 
Pope,  who  appointed  a  rector  to  manage  them,  paid 
taxes  and  titles  in  kind  to  the  imperial  government, 
and  enjoyed  the  income  or  decided  what  use  should 
be  made  of  it. 

The  lands  thus  held  by  the  Church  of  Rome  in 
Sicily  were  so  extensive  as  to  enable  the  popes  to 
supply  Rome  with  Sicilian  corn,  and  it  is  not  surpris- 
ing to  find  Sicily  again  the  granary  of  the  Italian 
capital.  It  was  the  possession  of  these  lands  that 
laid  a  first  foundation  for  the  temporal  power  of  the 
popes,  which  became  a  fact  when  actual  possession 
of  a  territory  on  the  mainland  was  necessary,  in  order 
to  compensate  for  the  financial  disaster  suffered  by 
the  Church  through  the  loss  of  Sicily  to  the  Empire. 
Pope  Gregory  was  a  man  whose  intellectual  superior- 
ity would  in  any  case  have  led  him  to  distinction, 
and  whose  charitable  disposition  could  hardly  fail  to 
procure  him  a  well-deserved  popularity ;  but  the  real 
power  which  he  wielded  with  such  wholesome  energy 
was  based  upon  the  Church's  already  vast  posses- 
sions in  the  south,  and  was  perhaps  supplemented 
by  the  great  private  wealth  he  is  generally  believed 
to  have  inherited  from  his  mother.  This  fortune 


4O  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

f 

likewise  came  to  him  in  the  shape  of  Sicilian  lands, 
on  which  he  was  able  to  found  rich  monasteries 
before  he  became  Pope ;  and  though  Gibbon  observes 
with  some  sarcasm  that  his  devotion  pursued  the 
path  which  would  have  been  chosen  by  a  crafty  and 


an* 


POSITANO,    BETWEEN    SORRENTO    AND    AMALFI 

ambitious  statesman,  it  is  the  general  opinion  of  man- 
kind that  he  deserved  the  title  of  Saint  and  the  ven- 
eration of  Christians,  at  least  as  truly  as  any  man 
since  the  Apostles  and  the  early  martyrs. 

The  fall  of  the  Gothic  kingdom  was  followed  within 
a  few  years  by  the  rise  of  the  Papacy.  The  Eastern 
Empire  was  never  able  to  hold  and  govern  Italy 


The  Goths  and  the  Byzantines  41 

directly,  owing,  perhaps,  to  that  radical  defect  in  all 
Eastern  governments  to  which  I  have  already  alluded. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  emperors  could  not  and  would 
not  relinquish  such  a  possession,  and  where  the  au- 
thority of  their  exarchs  and  their  praetors  was  insuf- 
ficient, they  supplemented  it  by  increasing  that  of  the 
popes,  which  was  sure  to  be  exercised  in  a  more  or 
less  conservative  spirit.  A  right  understanding  of 
these  simple  facts  is  all  that  is  necessary  in  order 
to  trace  the  evolution  of  the  Papacy,  with  its  organ- 
ized temporal  power,  from  the  chaos  that  followed 
the  extinction  of  the  Western  Empire.  In  other  words, 
and  to  recapitulate  briefly,  chaos  was  followed  by  a 
tremendous  effort  on  the  part  of  the  barbarians  to 
get  possession  of  Italy ;  this  having  failed,  and  Jus- 
tinian having  reoccupied  the  country,  he  found  him- 
self unable  to  govern  it  without  the  support  of  the 
popes,  who  gradually  turned  their  assistance  into  a 
domination.  The  connexion  of  all  this  with  the  story 
of  the  south  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  popes  relied 
upon  their  possessions  in  Sicily  for  the  greater  part 
of  their  worldly  wealth  and  power,  before  the  union 
and  consolidation  of  these  produced  their  temporal 
sovereignty. 

The  Synod  of  Constantinople,  held  in  the  year  381, 
had  acknowledged  the  supremacy  of  the  Bishop  of 
Rome  by  giving  him  precedence  over  all  others,  and 
this  action  was  confirmed  by  the  Synod  of  Chalcedon 


42  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

in  451.  Justinian  had  further  acknowledged  this 
precedence  of  the  popes  by  the  manner  in  which  he 
had  received  Pope  John  when  the  latter  came  to  Con- 
stantinople as  Theodoric's  ambassador,  and  it  was  not 
unnatural,  therefore,  that  the  emperor  should  suffer 
the  popes  to  exercise  such  very  great  influence  upon 
Italian  affairs ;  and  since  Sicily  is  spoken  of  at  that 
time  as  the  '  Asylum  and  Paradise  of  the  Church,' 
it  is  quite  certain  that  the  papal  influence  must  have 
been  especially  strong  in  the  island,  and  may  have 
amounted  to  a  positive  domination  under  such  a  Pope 
as  Gregory  the  Great. 

This  extraordinary  man  was  born  in  Rome  about 
the  year  540,  and  was  therefore  thirteen  years  old 
at  the  time  when  the  Goths  were  finally  overcome. 
He  was  the  son  of  a  Roman  senator,  Gordianus,  and 
of  his  wife  Sylvia,  who  is  believed  to  have  been  a  Sicil- 
ian lady  of  great  wealth.  Gordianus  himself  afterwards 
entered  the  Church,  and  died  one  of  the  seven  cardinal 
deacons  who  administered  the  seven  ecclesiastical  dis- 
tricts of  Rome.  Gregory  received  an  education  befit- 
ting his  birth  and  fortune,  and  it  is  a  sign  of  the 
decay  of  Greek  influence  in  Central  Italy  that  he 
never  learned  the  Greek  language.  At  the  age  of 
thirty-four,  as  most  writers  think,  he  was  appointed 
Prefect  of  Rome  by  Justin  the  Second,  which  means 
that  he  presided  in  the  Senate,  was  the  chief  magistrate 
of  the  city,  and  was  largely  responsible  for  providing 


The  Goths  and  the  Byzantines  43 

it  with  food.  How  long  he  remained  in  this  high 
office  is  not  known,  but  it  was  probably  not  more 
than  a  year,  and  on  the  death  of  his  father  he  inherited 
a  palace  on  the  Ccelian.  His  mother,  who  was  still 
alive,  appears  to  have  abandoned  to  him  her  Sicilian 
possessions,  for  he  founded  there  six  monasteries  on 
lands  of  his  own,  and  he  converted  the  Coelian  palace  to 
monastic  uses  in  575,  and  dedicated  it  to  Saint  Andrew. 
It  probably  occupied  the  site  of  the  hospital  which 
now  stands  opposite  the  Lateran  basilica,  and  within 
which  there  is  still  a  church  of  Saint  Andrew.  He 
had  always  loved  the  society  of  monks  and  ecclesi- 
astics ;  he  now  gave  himself  up  entirely  to  devotion, 
and  injured  his  health  by  the  severity  of  his  fasting. 
After  this,  having  seen  certain  fair  Anglian  children 
exposed  for  sale  as  slaves,  he  desired  to  convert  Britain, 
saying  that  it  was  '  a  lamentable  consideration  that 
the  prince  of  darkness  should  be  master  of  so  much 
beauty  and  have  such  comely  persons  in  his  posses- 
sion ;  and  that  so  fine  an  outside  should  have  nothing 
of  God's  grace  to  furnish  it  within ' ;  and  he  played 
also  upon  the  words  'Anglians'  and  'Angels,'  for  play- 
ing upon  words  in  this  manner  was  a  sort  of  weakness 
with  him,  and  many  of  his  jests  are  recorded.  At 
first  the  Pope  permitted  him  to  undertake  the  con- 
version of  those  heathen ;  but  when  he  had  journeyed 
three  days  towards  Britain,  the  Pope  sent  a  messenger 
after  him,  because  his  fame  was  already  so  great  that 


44  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

the  people  murmured  and  cried  out,  saying  that  with- 
out Gregory  Rome  was  lost.  So  he  returned,  and 
soon  afterwards  he  was  made  a  cardinal  deacon,  and 
was  then  sent  as  nuncio,  or  ambassador,  to  Con- 
stantinople, where  the  Emperor  Tiberius  the  Second 
was  reigning,  to  whose  grandson  Gregory  stood  god- 
father ;  and  there  he  remained  long  enough  to  write 
his  work  of  Morals  upon  Job,  '  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  reduce  into  one  body  the  most  excellent  principles 
of  morality.'  In  the  year  584  he  was  recalled,  and 
resumed  his  tranquil  monastic  life,  of  which  many 
anecdotes  are  told.  The  Pope  died  in  590,  in  the 
great  pestilence,  and  the  clergy,  the  Senate,  and  the 
Roman  people  chose  Gregory  to  be  his  successor ;  but 
in  those  days  it  was  the  custom  to  consult  the  emperor 
about  the  election  of  a  Pope,  and  Gregory  wrote  many 
letters  to  Constantinople,  imploring  that  his  own  election 
might  not  be  approved.  The  prefect  of  Rome  inter- 
cepted them  all,  and  wrote  very  strongly  requesting 
the  imperial  approval.  During  the  pestilence  Gregory 
publicly  prayed  with  the  people,  walking  in  procession 
and  singing  a  solemn  Kyrie,  and  while  he  walked 
through  the  streets  four  score  of  those  who  went  with 
him  fell  dead  of  the  plague.  When  he  learned  that 
his  letters  had  not  been  delivered,  he  tried  to  escape 
from  Rome,  lest  he  should  be  made  Pope,  and  in 
order  to  elude  the  guards  at  the  gates  he  had  him- 
self carried  out  in  a  wicker  basket,  and  lay  three  days 


The  Goths  and  the  Byzantines  45 

hidden  in  the  woods.  But  he  was  found  and  brought 
back  with  great  joy  and  acclamation,  and  he  was  con- 
secrated, and  made  profession  of  faith  at  the  tomb 
of  Saint  Peter,  which  is  called  the  Confession  to 
this  day. 

Then,  says  the  best  of  his  biographers,  he  became 
the  common  father  of  the  poor,  relieving  their  neces- 
sities with  such  gentleness  as  to  spare  them  the  shame 
of  receiving  alms.  He  made  them  sit  at  his  own 
table,  and  he  made  exact  lists  of  them.  As  each 
month  began  he  made  distribution  to  all  of  corn,  wine, 
lentils,  cheese,  fish,  meat,  and  oil,  and  he  appointed 
officers  over  districts  and  streets,  whose  duty  it  was 
to  see  that  poor  sick  persons  were  fed  and  cared  for. 
He  redeemed  captives  taken  by  the  Lombards,  and 
for  this  purpose  he  even  ordered  the  Bishop  of  Mes- 
sina to  break  up  and  sell  certain  sacred  vessels.  He 
ordered  the  Bishop  of  Terracina  to  restore  to  the  Jews 
their  synagogue,  which  had  been  taken  from  them, 
saying  that  if  they  were  to  be  converted,  it  should  be 
done  by  meekness  and  charity. 

He  issued  the  same  orders  for  the  Jews  of  Sicily,  as 
well  as  of  Sardinia,  and  in  his  letters  to  his  stewards  he 
constantly  inculcates  the  duty  of  dealing  liberally  with 
the  farmers,  and  even  of  advancing  money  to  them  in 
bad  times,  to  be  repaid  in  small  sums.  Yet  he  was  a 
man  of  undaunted  courage,  who  could  be  hot  in  anger, 
and  he  said  of  himself  that  he  tolerated  long,  but  that 


46  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

when  he  had  once  determined  to  bear  no  longer,  he 
would  face  any  danger  with  delight. 

With  regard  to  Sicily  and  its  administration,  we  find 
that  Syracuse  was  still  regarded  as  the  natural  and  tra- 
ditional capital  of  the  island,  and  Gregory's  vicar,  the 
Subdeacon  Peter,  was  established  there.  The  first  of 
the  Pope's  letters  which  has  been  preserved  enjoins 
upon  the  Sicilian  bishops  to  meet  the  vicar  once  a  year, 
either  in  Syracuse  or  in  Catania,  for  the  discussion  of 
important  matters.  The  monasteries  founded  by  him 
are  believed  to  have  been  the  following :  Saint  Hernia, 
now  San  Giovanni  degli  Eremiti,  in  Palermo  ;  San  Mar- 
tino,  at  the  head  of  a  valley  not  very  far  from  the  same 
city ;  Saint  Maxim  and  Saint  Agatha,  called  '  Mons 
Lucusianum  '  ;  Saint  Theodore  ;  Saint  Hadrian  ;  and 
the  Praetorianum  or  Praecoritanum.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  the  first  two,  their  sites  are  not  positively 
known,  and  it  will  probably  never  be  possible  to  de- 
termine them.  The  influence  of  these  religious  insti- 
tutions, founded  as  they  were  by  Gregory  himself,  may 
have  been  considerable,  and  they  were  most  probably 
not  subject  to  the  papal  vicar,  but  were  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  superior  of  the  order,  who  resided  in  Rome, 
and  occasionally  conferred  with  the  Pope  himself. 

As  for  the  Vicar  Peter,  he  began  by  being  Gregory's 
most  trusted  friend  and  servant  in  Sicily,  but  he  was 
guilty  of  all  manner  of  neglect,  he  tried  his  master's 
patience  beyond  the  limit  of  endurance,  and  was  ulti- 


SARACEN-NORMAN   CHURCH   OF  SA'  DEOLI    EREldfn,    PALERMO 


he   Rui<  ith 

w'1  had  once  determined  to  bear  no  longer,  he 

v  :er  with  delight. 

\Vi<  ily  and  its  administration,  we  find 

th  irded  as  the  natural  and  tra- 

ditional capital  of  the  island,  and  Gregory's  vicar,  the 
S>  .  tblished  there.  The  first  of 

the  Pope's  letters  which  has  been  preserved  enjoins 
upon  the  Sicilian  bishops  to  meet  the  vicar  once  a  year, 
either  in  Syracuse  or  the  discussion  of 

important  istcries  founded  by  him 

are  be  1:  .ollowing:  Saint  Herma, 

now  San  Ci  :miti,  in  Palermo  ;  San  Mar- 

tino,  at  th<  y  far  from  the  same 

city  ;  .;atha,  called  '  Mons 

Lucusi  i  •;    Saint    Hadrian;    and 

th<  tht:    excep- 

tion   of    the  «»rc    ri--f    rw»Mtively 

known  :  >   de- 

ter /  •  --    )!is!l- 

tu  '>  himself,  may 

b:.  considerable,  and  they  were  most  probably 

not  subject  to  the  papal  vicar,  but  were  under  the  con- 

trol  <>f  the  superior  of  the  order,  who  resided  in  Rome, 

n  ally  conferred  with  the  Pope  himself.  • 

i  he  Vicar  Peter^  he  began  by  being  Gregory's 

•d  iriend  and  servant  in  Sicily,  but  he  was 


icyoncl  the  limit  of  endurance,  and  was  ulti- 


The  Goths  and  the  Byzantines  47 

mately  removed  from  office.  As  a  specimen  of  the 
Pope's  manner  of  rebuke,  it  would  be  impossible  to  give 
anything  better  than  the  fragments  which  Mr.  Hodg- 
kin  has  selected  and  translated  from  the  vast  mass  of 
Saint  Gregory's  letters ;  and  when  we  remember  that  it 
was  this  Pope  who  first  signed  himself  in  all  his  letters, 
'  Servus  servorum  Dei,'  the  Servant  of  the  servants  of 
God,  thereby  inaugurating  a  custom  which  still  sur- 
vives, we  cannot  but  be  edified  and  interested  by  his 
manner  of  admonishing  those  in  service  under  him, 
both  with  sarcasm  and  with  earnest  exhortations.  He 
addresses  his  vicar  politely  as  '  Your  Experience,' 
when  Peter  had  shown  his  signal  lack  of  that  quality, 
and  as  '  Your  Anxiety,'  when  the  slothful  vicar  had 
exhibited  the  most  culpable  indifference. 

Professor  Grisar,  cited  as  a  high  authority  by  Mr. 
Hodgkin,  has  estimated  that  the  whole  Patrimony  of 
the  Church  in  Saint  Gregory's  time  amounted  to  eigh- 
teen hundred  square  miles  of  land,  and  Mr.  Hodgkin 
speaks  of  these  possessions  as,  '  wide  domains,'  the  rev- 
enue of  which  is  calculated  by  Professor  Grisar  at  three 
hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling.  I  do  not  know  how 
the  estimate  and  the  calculation  were  made,  not  being 
able  to  obtain  a  copy  of  the  article  from  which  Mr. 
Hodgkin  quotes  them ;  but  there  is  a  manifest  discrep- 
ancy between  the  extent  of  the  land  and  the  large 
income  supposed  to  be  derived  from  it.  As  I  have 
before  said,  the  modern  Bronte  estate  in  Sicily  is  eighty 


48 


The   Rulers  of  the  South 


miles  in  circumference.  If  the  figure  were  a  square, 
twenty  miles  on  each  side,  the  area  would  be  four  hun- 
dred square  miles  ;  if  a  circle,  it  would  be  considerably 
more  than  five  hundred.  Four  or  five  such  estates 

would    there- 
fore equal  the 
'vast  domains' 
that    composed 
the     Patrimony 
of    Saint  Peter, 
and  which  were 
situated  in  Rome 
and   its    environs, 
in  the  country  of 
the  Sabines,  in  Pice- 
num,    in    the    neigh- 
bourhood  of    Ravenna, 
in     Campania,    Apulia, 
and     Bruttii,     in     Gaul 

— '  ^tejff  -*»  -      •  -    — 

and  Illyricum,  in  the 
islands  of  Sardinia  and  Corsica 
—  and  principally  in  Sicily. 
A  little  further  calculation 
shows  that  an  even  distribu- 
tion would  give  only  one  hundred  and  fifty  square 
miles  to  each  of  the  regions  named,  or  an  estate  in 
each  equal  to  about  one-third  of  the  Bronte  property. 
Moreover,  the  revenue  calculated  would  amount  to  one 


•  *.^vL*.^«* 


A    SICILIAN    COURTYARD 


The  Goths  and  the  Byzantines  49 

hundred  and  sixty-six  pounds  sterling  per  average 
square  mile,  or  five  shillings  per  acre,  roughly,  which, 
at  three  and  a  half  per  cent,  a  very  high  estimate, 
would  make  the  land  worth  over  eight  pounds  an  acre 
in  the  year  600 ;  which  is  impossible,  especially  as  much 
of  the  property  lay  in  half-civilized  regions.  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  we  suppose  that  Professor  Grisar,  cited  by 
Mr.  Hodgkin,  meant  eighteen  hundred  miles  square, 
instead  of  eighteen  hundred  square  miles,  we  should 
have  an  area  much  larger  than  the  whole  of  Europe. 
There  is,  therefore,  some  radical  mistake  in  the  estimate 
or  in  the  calculation,  or  in  both,  which  renders  them 
quite  useless  as  a  basis  of  argument.  Of  the  figures 
given,  that  of  the  income  actually  enjoyed  by  the  Pope 
is  by  far  the  more  probable,  from  whatever  sources 
the  revenue  may  have  been  derived ;  and  the  conclu- 
sions drawn  by  Mr.  Hodgkin  are  just,  namely,  that 
the  care  of  such  a  property  must  have  been  a  heavy 
burden  on  the  shoulders  of  an  ascetic  Pope,  and  that 
the  expenditure,  as  well  as  the  receipt,  of  the  large 
income  derived  from  the  Papal  Patrimony  imposed 
severe  labour  on  so  conscientious  a  steward  of  his 
wealth  as  Pope  Gregory. 

There  was  less  difference  between  the  position  of  the 
agricultural  classes  in  Pope  Gregory's  day  and  that 
which  they  occupied  under  the  Roman  Empire,  or  even 
under  the  Republic,  than  might  be  supposed,  consider- 
ing the  long  time  that  elapsed ;  but  it  was  during  this 


50  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

first  time  of  papal  influence  that  the  population  began 
to  be  divided  into  three  classes,  namely,  the  clergy,  the 
nobility,  and  the  common  people  ;  and  the  clergy  stood 
between  the  whole  country  and  the  spasmodic  govern- 
ment of  Constantinople,  to  protect  the  one  and  restrain 
the  other.  It  was  largely  because  the  bishops  of  that 
period  were  truly  the  shepherds  of  their  flocks,  at  a  time 
when  the  officers  of  the  Empire  deserved,  not  unjustly, 
to  be  compared  to  wolves,  that  the  Church  acquired 
that  direct  influence  throughout  the  country,  and  won 
that  almost  passionate  affection  of  the  poor,  which  she 
preserved  through  so  many  centuries,  and  has  not  even 
yet  wholly  lost  in  the  south,  whatever  may  be  said  to 
the  contrary.  This  position  of  the  bishops  is  chiefly 
traceable  to  the  efforts  of  Pope  Gregory,  and  even 
Gibbon's  sarcasms  have  not  shaken  the  honourable 
position  he  occupies  in  history.  That  he  succeeded,  as 
he  did,  in  improving  the  condition  of  the  governed,  was 
in  part  due  to  the  dominating  position  he  occupied  in 
Rome ;  but  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  he  was  sup- 
posed to  be  subject  to  the  emperor,  to  whom  he  ex- 
pressed his  wishes  in  the  form  of  advice  in  matters  of 
government  and  of  recommendations  in  affairs  that  were 
personal.  In  a  majority  of  cases  the  emperor  had  no 
choice  but  to  act  upon  these  expressions  of  the  Pope's 
desires ;  but  a  very  great  amount  of  arbitrary  power 
was  conferred  upon  the  imperial  commissioner,  who 
was  superior  to  the  governor  of  Sicily  himself,  and  over 


The  Goths  and  the  Byzantines  51 


whom  the  Pope  could  only  exercise  a  moral  influence, 
not  supported  by  any  legal  force.  At  all  events,  the 
position  was  such  that  the  Pope  could  only  restrain 
him  indirectly,  through  the  emperor  himself ;  so  that  in 
case  a  good  under- 
standing was  not 
maintained,  it  was 
possible  for  the 
commissioner  to 
do  much  harm, 
before  the  Pope 
could  hinder  him, 
by  the  circuitous 
method  which 
consisted  in  ap- 
pealing to  Con- 
stantinople. Yet 
such  difficulties 
arose  rarely,  if  at 
all,  during  the  reign 
of  the  wise  Gregory, 
and  the  rich  south  put 
out  new  blossom  and 

fruit  under  his  careful  hand.  The  clergy,  the  nobility, 
and  the  people  lived  peacefully  under  his  paternal 
guidance,  if  not  under  his  direct  and  sovereign  rule, 
and  the  vast  wealth  began  to  accumulate  which  was 
erelong  to  fill  the  treasury  of  a  new  conqueror.  When 


-. 


UALCONY    AT    TAORMINA 


52  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

the  Arabs  destroyed  Syracuse  in  878  they  took,  with 
other  booty,  more  than  a  million  pieces  of  gold,  which 
is  said  to  have  been  the  largest  sum  of  money  ever 
seized  by  them  in  any  one  city  throughout  all  their 
conquests. 

Cultivation  had  become  very  extensive  in  Sicily,  and 
individual  estates  were  of  enormous  extent.  One  is 
mentioned  which  required  no  less  than  four  hundred 
overseers,  and  with  the  Empire  the  custom  of  letting 
land  to  small  tenants  had  arisen,  as  being  more  practical 
in  some  cases  than  that  of  cultivating  a  great  estate  for 
the  owner's  direct  benefit,  under  the  supervision  of 
stewards ;  these  small  free  tenants  were  called  '  coloni,' 
and  the  word  is  used  in  its  original  meaning  to  the 
present  day  in  Italy.  Of  the  number  and  condition 
of  the  slaves  at  the  time  of  Pope  Gregory  we  know 
little,  and  are  not  likely  to  learn  more.  The  free  tenants 
were  evidently  a  substitute  for  slaves,  as  a  means  of 
getting  the  greatest  possible  income  from  the  land,  and 
this  fact  alone  goes  to  show  that  the  number  of  slaves 
had  diminished,  and  that  their  value  had  increased,  so 
that  it  no  longer  paid  the  landholder  to  employ  them. 
That  there  were  still  a  number  of  slaves  in  Sicily,  how- 
ever, we  know.  We  know  also  that  the  introduction 
of  the  '  Malvasia  '  grape  took  place  in  this  period.  Mal- 
vasia  is  a  corruption  of  Monembasia,  and  has  been  fur- 
ther corrupted  in  English  to  '  Malmsey.'  Monembasia 
is  a  harbour  in  the  Peloponnesus,  called  in  ancient  times 


The  Goths  and  the   Byzantines  53 

Epidaurus  Limera,  and  a  very  close  trading  connexion 
existed  between  it  and  Sicily  in  the  sixth  century.  Its 
sweet  white  grapes  were  the  original  stock  whence  de- 
scended those  of  which  the  good  white  wines  of  Sicily 
are  made  in  our  day,  and  there  is  not  a  farmer  in  the 
south  who  does  not  pride  himself  upon  having  a  demi- 
john or  two  of  the  rich  Malvasia  wine  ripening  in  a 
corner  of  his  'grotta'  for  some  great  occasion.  Its 
flavour  is  like  that  of  Malaga,  and  it  has  as  much  body, 
and  often  as  fine  a  colour ;  but  excepting  where  it  has 
been  made  with  great  skill  and  patience,  it  is  usually  a 
coarser  wine.  From  the  same  grapes  the  Marsala 
is  made,  and  the  principal  peculiarity  of  the  Malvasia 
is  that  in  making  it  a  certain  quantity  of  grapes  are 
used  which  have  been  hung  in  a  dry  place  till  they  are 
half  dried,  and  as  sweet  as  sugar. 

While  Justinian  was  discriminating  between  the 
relative  demerits  of  a  dozen  heresies,  and  while  his 
successors  were  in  vain  attempting  to  imitate  what 
they  only  half  understood ;  and  while  the  wise  and 
saintly  Gregory  was  ruling  the  Church  for  the  true 
advancement  and  benefit  of  the  Empire,  as  well  as  of 
mankind,  a  man  was  growing  up  whose  influence  was 
to  change  the  course  of  history  and  modify  the  lives 
of  many  millions.  When  Gregory  was  elected  Pope  in 
590,  Mohammed  was  twenty  years  of  age.  Two  hun- 
dred years  later  the  Mohammedan  Arabs  destroyed 
Syracuse,  and  made  themselves  masters  of  the  south. 


54  The   Rulers  of  the  South 

That  period  of  two  centuries,  therefore,  embraces  the 
first  preachings  of  Mohammed,  who  began  to  propa- 
gate his  doctrines  about  the  year  610,  when  he  gave 
out  that  the  Archangel  Gabriel  had  appeared  to  him, 
declaring  those  truths  which  he  was  to  reveal  to 
men.  Twelve  years  later,  after  converting  his  family 
and  many  other  persons  to  the  belief  that  he  was  the 
messenger  and  prophet  of  God,  he  fled  before  per- 
secution to  Yatreb,  and  thence  to  Medina,  and  the 
date  of  his  escape  and  flight  was  the  beginning  of 
the  Mohammedan  era.  Seated  high  upon  his  swift 
camel,  and  wrapped  in  his  Arab  blanket,  fleeing  by 
night  with  a  few  faithful  followers,  the  delicate,  red- 
haired,  pale-faced  young  man  was  far  from  dreaming 
that  he  too,  like  his  divine  predecessor,  had  brought  not 
peace  but  a  sword  into  the  world ;  or  that  the  near 
descendants  of  those  whom  his  converts  were  soon  to 
convert  should  snatch  an  empire  from  the  midst  of 
a  world  which,  in  his  own  childhood,  had  been  gov- 
erned by  such  men  as  the  Emperor  Justinian  and  the 
Pontiff  Gregory.  It  may  be  that  the  amazing  progress 
of  the  Mohammedan  religion  was  due  to  the  wretched 
moral  state  of  man  in  the  East,  that  the  natural  force 
it  possessed  by  the  simplicity  of  the  appeal  it  made 
to  human  passions  was  strengthened  by  the  promises 
of  unbounded  satisfaction  in  a  future  which  the  Chris- 
tian shudders  to  contemplate ;  it  may  be  also  that 
Christianity  had  not  fulfilled  its  mission  in  those 


The  Goths  and  the  Byzantines  55 

countries  where  Mohammedanism  spread  first  and  most 
rapidly.  Between  the  death  of  Saint  Gregory  and 
the  first  descent  of  the  Arabs  upon  Sicilian  shores 
falls  the  War  of  the  Images,  than  which  no  conflict 
could  give  a  more  precise  notion  of  the  condition  of 
Christian  worship  in  the  East. 

Saint  Gregory,  who  was  a  practical  pastor  before 
he  was  an  enlightened  Pope,  had  declared  that  the 
presence  in  churches  of  pictures  and  statues  repre- 
senting not  only  divine  beings,  but  persons  of  holy 
life  and  death,  was  conducive  to  an  historical  know- 
ledge of  Christianity,  by  affording  instruction  to  the 
many  who  could  not  read.  In  an  age  when  ignorance 
of  all  letters  was  the  rule,  and  when  an  overwhelming 
majority  of  believers  were  therefore  called  upon  to 
accept  instruction  both  in  dogma  and  in  history  of 
their  faith  by  word  of  mouth  only,  such  a  point  of  view 
as  that  of  the  great  Pope  was  not  only  wise  and  prac- 
tical, but  seemed  to  be  the  only  reasonable  one.  The 
early  Christians  had  inveighed,  with  a  violence  paral- 
leled only  by  that  afterwards  displayed  by  the  Arabs, 
against  the  heathen  idolatry ;  they  had  animated  the 
images  of  Apollo,  of  Aphrodite,  and  of  Athene  with 
the  spirits  of  devils  in  order  to  enjoy,  in  the  destruc- 
tion of  senseless  matter,  the  imaginary  delights  of 
vanquishing  the  Prince  of  Darkness  in  his  stronghold. 
The  first  missionary  bishop  in  Sicily,  not  yet  strong 
enough  to  overthrow  the  oracle  in  his  temple,  was 


56  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

believed  to  have  silenced  him  by  secretly  fastening 
a  letter  round  the  neck  of  his  image.  The  fury  of 
the  Christians  had  never  been  directed  against  the 
images  themselves,  but  always  against  the  demons 
that  were  supposed  to  inhabit  them.  Never,  from  the 
earliest  times,  had  the  Christians  exhibited  that  horror 
of  a  graven  image  which  was  an  article  of  faith  with 
the  Jews,  and  which  has  remained  one  among  strict 
Mohammedans.  From  the  beginning  the  Christian 
slave  was  impelled  to  express  upon  the  stone  that 
covered  his  loved  ones,  the  thought  of  that  peace 
which  is  beyond  all  understanding ;  and,  unlettered 
as  he  mostly  was,  his  expression  took  the  form  of  a 
rude  image,  of  a  symbol,  of  a  mere  sign.  The  simple 
faith  which  at  first  fulfilled  its  rites  in  caves,  in  sub- 
terranean quarries,  and  in  the  cellars  of  deserted 
palaces,  rose  to  the  surface  and  displayed  itself  in 
the  upper  air  with  a  magnificence  which  was  but  the 
outward  sign  of  mankind's  approbation ;  then  the  mark 
grew  to  an  inscription,  the  symbol  to  a  halo,  the  rude 
outline  of  God's  image  to  an  exalted  image  of  God 
himself.  Above  the  dark  catacomb  wherein  had  been 
laid  the  torn  bodies  of  martyred  saints,  and  where  the 
poor  and  the  outcast  had  worshipped  in  hourly  fear 
of  death,  but  in  the  perpetual  certainty  of  the  life 
to  come,  —  above  those  places  of  refuge  and  suffering 
rose  the  splendid  cathedrals  of  a  victorious  and  uni- 
versal religion.  And  that  religion,  like  Agag  of  old, 


The  Goths  and  the  Byzantines  57 

lived  in  the  illusion  that  the  bitterness  of  death  was 
past ;  it  depicted  its  past  sufferings  and  present  tri- 
umphs with  all  the  art  which  the  times  could  command, 
it  made  light  of  future  trials,  and  it  believed  that  the 
millennium  of  the  blessed  was  at  hand. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  the  Church  in  Sicily  fifty 
years  after  Pope  Gregory's  death ;  and  it  came  to  pass 
that  Mohammedans  sailed  up  to  Sicily  out  of  the  south- 
east, and  made  a  furious  raid  upon  the  island,  and  took 
much  spoil.  So  strong  were  the  adherents  of  the  new 
faith  become  in  652,  the  thirtieth  year  of  their  era.  But 
they  were  not  yet  strong  enough  to  conquer  the  south, 
in  spite  of  Constantinople,  and  when  they  had  fought 
with  some  imperial  troops  under  the  exarch  himself, 
they  seem  to  have  yielded  to  the  representations  of  Pope 
Martin  the  First,  for  they  sailed  away  again  to  Asia, 
taking  their  booty  with  them,  and  a  number  of  Sicilian 
prisoners,  who  settled  in  Damascus. 

At.  that  time,  the  emperor  was  that  wretched  Con- 
stans  the  Second,  who  sent  the  Exarch  Olympius  to 
Rome  to  murder  Pope  Martin,,  because  the  latter 
refused  to  accept  the  imperial  opinion  as  an  incontro- 
vertible dogma.  But  Olympius  was  converted,  and  went 
with  the  Pope  into  Sicily  against  the  Mohammedans, 
and  died  there  of  the  plague.  Then  Constans  accused 
the  Pope  of  allying  himself  with  the  Arabs,  and  caused 
him  to  be  brought  from  Rome  to  Messina,  and  thence 
to  Constantinople,  where  the  venerable  pontiff  was 


58  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

condemned  to  death,  and  dragged  through  the  streets 
by  the  hangman,  before  he  was  sent  to  die  in  the 
Crimea. 

Then  Constans,  having  satisfied  his  thirst  for  ven- 
geance, attempted  to  chastise  the  Mohammedans  for 
their  attack  on  Sicily,  but  was  himself  ignominiously 
beaten  at  sea,  and  retired  to  his  own  capital,  which  was 
distracted  by  schisms  and  cankered  with  seditions.  At 
once  restless,  foolish,  and  unscrupulous,  he  conceived 
the  idea  of  reestablishing  the  Empire  in  Rome,  since  he 
could  not  reign  peacefully  in  Constantinople ;  he  would 
attack  Benevento,  crush  the  Lombard  power  in  the 
south,  conciliate  the  Pope,  restore  what  had  been,  and 
make  himself  a  reputation  out  of  the  rags  of  failure. 
He  collected  troops  in  Italy  and  Sicily.  The  Lombard 
Duke  of  Benevento  had  seized  for  himself  the  Lombard 
kingdom  in  the  north,  and  reigned  in  Pavia,  but  his  son 
defended  the  Duchy,  some  say  by  the  miraculous  help 
of  Saint  Barbatus,  and  put  the  unwarlike  emperor  to 
flight.  Constans  paused  for  breath  in  Naples,  and  then 
hastened  on  to  Rome.  In  twelve  days  he  had  per- 
formed his  devotions  at  the  tombs  of  the  saints  and  had 
stripped  the  city  of  its  beautiful  bronze  statues,  and  of 
every  bit  of  bronze  and  copper  on  which  he  could  lay 
hands. 

A  new  scheme  had  formed  itself  in  his  weak  brain ; 
he  would  establish  the  Empire  in  Sicily,  and  make  Syra- 
cuse his  residence.  He  returned  to  Naples,  and  pro- 


The  Goths  and  the   Byzantines  59 

ceeded  thence  by  land  to  Reggio.  The  western  side  of 
the  south  was  ruled  by  Greek  dukes,  loyal  to  the 
Empire,  from  Gaeta  to  Naples,  Sorrento,  and  Amalfi, 
and  thence  to  Taranto ;  he  reached  Sicily  unmolested 
by  the  Lombards,  who  had  no  fleet,  and  he  established 
himself  in  Syracuse,  its  last  and  most  despicable 
tyrant. 

Five  years  he  reigned  there  and  ravaged  the  land 
that  remembered  Verres  and  was  soon  to  be  a  prey  to 
the  Saracens.  He  seized  property  by  violence,  and 
raised  more  money  by  the  legal  extortion  of  exorbitant 
taxes ;  and  when  these  could  not  be  paid,  the  miserable 
debtors  were  sold  into  slavery.  To  fill  the  measure  of 
his  greed,  he  took  the  sacred  vessels  from  the  churches 
and  convents  when  there  was  nothing  else  left  to  take. 

Then  a  slave  killed  him,  in  the  year  668.  While  he 
was  washing  himself  in  his  bath  with  Gallic  soap,  the  man 
Andreas  —  insulted,  we  know  not  how,  past  all  bearing — 
laid  hands  upon  the  soap  box,  which  was  the  only  mov- 
able thing  in  the  bathroom,  and  brought  it  down  upon 
the  emperor's  head  with  all  his  might.  Then  he  fled 
by  an  inner  way.  Either  the  soap  box  was  very  heavy, 
or  the  man  was  very  strong,  for  the  work  was  done,  and 
the  last  tyrant  of  Syracuse  lay  dead  on  the  marble  floor. 
A  few  courtiers  made  a  puppet-emperor  of  a  certain 
Armenian,  but  the  soldiers  immediately  rose  and  cut 
off  his  head,  and  sent  it  to  Constantinople  before  the 
young  Constantine  the  Third  reached  Sicily  with  his 


60  The   Rulers  of  the  South 

fleet.  Having  restored  order  he  retired,  and  a  Saracen 
fleet  suddenly  appeared  before  Syracuse.  The  Arabs 
once  more  plundered  the  city,  carrying  off  to  Alexan- 
dria all  the  spoils  of  copper  and  bronze  which  Constans 
had  brought  from  Rome.  Then  there  was  peace  for 
a  time,  while  Constantine  reigned  in  his  own  city,  and 
Sicily  once  more  felt  the  beneficial  effects  of  papal 
administration.  Several  Sicilians  were  popes  within  a 
few  years ;  there  was  Agatho  of  Palermo,  and  Leo  the 
Second,  also  a  Sicilian,  and  there  was  the  Thracian 
Conon,  who  had  been  brought  up  in  Sicily,  and  Sergius 
the  First,  of  Palermo,  who  refused  to  sign  certain  arti- 
cles approved  by  a  council  in  Constantinople.  The 
emperor,  who  was  then  Justinian  the  Second,  sent  an 
officer  to  Rome  to  arrest  Sergius  ;  but  the  militia  of 
Ravenna  came  to  the  rescue,  and  the  poor  Byzantine 
officer,  in  fright  for  his  life,  took  refuge  under  the  Pope's 
own  bed,  and  was  allowed  to  escape  unhurt.  The 
Church  was  strong  enough  to  defy  the  emperor  now. 
Then  came  the  conflict  about  the  use  of  images, 
of  which  the  result  was  to  establish  the  supremacy  of 
the  popes  in  Rome.  I  have  already  said  enough  to 
explain  the  view  held  regarding  images  in  Italy.  In 
the  year  717  the  Emperor  Leo  the  Isaurian  ascended 
the  throne  of  Constantinople.  Animated  by  a  spirit 
of  reform,  but  unable  to  understand  that  the  Church's 
real  danger  lay  in  the  theological  dissensions  which 
continually  distracted  Constantinople  and  the  East, 


The  Goths  and  the   Byzantines  61 

he  decreed  that  all  images  and  pictures  should  be 
removed  from  churches  throughout  the  Empire.  A 
more  unwise  measure  could  hardly  have  been  adopted, 
or  one  more  certain  to  rouse  a  storm  of  opposition 
in  the  East  and  in  the  West.  Had  Christianity 
begun  its  career,  like  Mohammedanism,  by  pro- 
hibiting the  representation  of  animate  living  things, 
there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  its  followers  would 
ever  have  fallen  into  an  abuse  of  symbolism  or  an 
excess  of  images.  The  Persian  Mohammedans  have 
departed  from  the  law  of  the  Prophet  in  regard  to 
at  least  two  points ;  they  drink  wine,  and  in  their 
arts  they  depict  both  human  beings  and  animals ; 
yet  they  are  not  a  nation  of  drunkards,  and  the 
images  they  paint  and  carve  have  little  or  no  con- 
nexion with  their  faith.  With  Christians  it  was  other- 
wise ;  their  history  was  bound  up  with  countless 
memories  of  individuals,  and  while  it  cannot  rightly 
be  said  that  the  sum  of  their  devotion  was  divided 
among  many  objects,  yet,  in  their  worship  of  those 
they  supremely  revered,  their  doctrine  taught  them 
of  the  constant  presence  of  those  who  before  them- 
selves had  died  for  the  faith,  of  the  nameless  millions 
who  waited  for  them  on  the  threshold  of  heaven, 
worshipping  with  them  and  praying  for  them  in  the 
Communion  of  Saints,  and  most  of  all  of  those  whom 
they  themselves  had  known  on  earth  and  who  were 
gone  before  to  the  place  of  refreshment,  light,  and 


62  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

peace.  The  Latin  mind  was  never  imaginative ;  the 
Greek  intelligence  had  ceased  to  be ;  and  to  unim- 
aginative minds  some  representation  of  the  thing 
believed  is  all  but  necessary  to  belief.  Half  a  life- 
time spent  among  the  people  of  the  south  has  con- 
vinced me  that,  in  spite  of  all  that  northern  writers 
have  said  to  the  contrary,  the  Italian  peasant  never 
really  confounds  the  image  with  the  holy  person, 
divine  or  human,  whom  it  represents.  He  may  call 
the  image  miraculous,  and  to  those  who  do  not  under- 
stand his  mode  of  expressing  himself,  it  may  indeed 
seem  that  he  is  attributing  supernatural  powers  to 
the  wood  and  stone ;  but  a  few  questions  asked  in 
his  own  language  and  in  terms  comprehensible  to 
him,  will  suffice  to  convince  any  fair  inquirer  that 
he  looks  upon  the  matter  very  differently.  The  souls 
of  the  departed  blessed,  he  says,  are  in  paradise ; 
they  may  be  moved  by  prayer  to  intercede  for  man, 
and,  as  if  retaining  some  of  their  earthly  attributes, 
they  may  prefer  that  men  should  address  them,  when 
possible,  in  places  which  their  lives  and  deaths,  or 
their  especial  choice,  may  have  more  particularly  indi- 
cated. The  peasant  who  makes  a  pilgrimage  to  the 
shrine  of  Our  Lady  at  Pompeii,  or  of  Saint  Michael 
on  Monte  Gargano,  speaks  as  if  he  were  going  to 
see  the  Mother  of  God,  or  the  Archangel,  in  their 
bodily  reality ;  but  in  real  truth  he  goes  to  places 
which  he  believes  they  have  especially  chosen,  with 


The  Goths  and  the  Byzantines  63 

the  hope  of  awakening  his  sluggish  imagination  by 
the  sight  of  revered  images  and  objects  in  the  com- 
pany of  many  of  his  fellows.  To  destroy  those  images, 
even  when  the  places  wherein  they  are  preserved  are 
not  consecrated,  would  be  to  attack  his  right  of  stimu- 
lating his  imagination  in  the  manner  most  natural  to 
him.  If  such  an  edict  as  that  issued  by  Leo  the 
Isaurian  were  proclaimed  in  the  south  to-day,  it  would 
produce  results  that  might  surprise  the  world.  It  is 
no  wonder  that  in  the  beginning  of  the  eighth  cen- 
tury it  should  have  led  to  a  revolution  which  estab- 
lished the  independence  of  the  temporal  power  in 
Rome  for  many  centuries  to  come.  Leo  indeed  pub- 
lished his  edict,  but  Pope  Gregory  the  Second  solemnly 
declared  in  a  papal  bull  that  the  emperor  was  not 
concerned  in  such  matters  and  had  no  right  to  decide 
what  belief  should  be  held  by  the  Church ;  and  by 
way  of  enforcing  theory  by  practice,  he  forbade  his 
people  in  Rome  and  in  Italy  to  pay  taxes  to  the 
emperor.  The  latter  retorted  boldly  by  deposing  the 
Pope,  so  far  as  a  mere  written  declaration  could  ac- 
complish such  a  momentous  undertaking.  Leo  wrote 
his  decree,  but  the  whole  militia  of  Naples  and  of 
Venice  assembled  without  delay  to  protect  the  Pope. 
The  emperor  attempted  to  enforce  his  will  with  a 
fleet  and  an  army,  but  the  Italians  stood  by  the  Pope 
to  a  man,  and  the  Lombards  of  the  north  took  up 
arms  in  his  defence.  The  emperor's  troops  were 


64  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

everywhere  repulsed,  and  their  leaders  were  put  to 
death ;  the  ancient  factions  and  feuds  of  the  Italian 
cities  were  forgotten,  and  the  people  united  to  fight 
side  by  side  for  the  holy  images.  At  Ravenna,  which 
was  the  seat  of  the  imperial  exarchate,  the  fighting 
was  long  and  fierce ;  the  army  of  Leo  was  beaten 
on  land  and  sought  a  fancied  safety  in  the  ships  of 
the  imperial  fleet ;  but  the  people  pursued  them  in 
small  craft  and  fishing-boats  and  skiffs,  and  in  a 
single  day  the  river  Po  was  dyed  so  deeply  red  with 
Byzantine  blood  that  for  six  years  the  people  would 
not  taste  of  its  fish.  Failing  in  arms,  the  emperor 
made  more  than  one  attempt  to  assassinate  his  stout 
opponent ;  but  the  Pope  was  secure  in  the  protec- 
tion of  his  fellow-countrymen  and  thundered  a  gen- 
eral and  major  excommunication  against  his  defeated 
adversaries.  Gregory  the  Second  could  have  assumed 
the  reins  of  independent  government  had  he  chosen 
to  do  so ;  or  perhaps  Luitprand,  the  Lombard  king, 
might  have  taken  Rome  for  himself  and  reestablished 
an  Italian  kingdom.  But  the  skilful  diplomacy  of 
Gregory  the  Second  turned  his  strong  ally  from  the 
path  of  conquest  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other, 
he  did  not  choose  to  inflict  useless  humiliation  upon 
his  imperial  adversary.  The  emperor's  exarch  was 
suffered  to  live  unmolested  in  Ravenna,  and  to  enjoy 
some  outward  semblance  of  a  departed  power.  Hav- 
ing been  beaten  by  sea  and  land,  driven  to  an  igno- 


The  Goths  and  the  Byzantines  65 

minious  flight,  and  tacitly  included  under  the  ban 
of  excommunication,  Leo  was  nevertheless  afterwards 
designated  as  Piissimus,  the  Most  Pious,  and  Rome, 
liberated  from  imperial  oppression,  allowed  herself  to 
be  ruled  in  the  name  of  the  emperors.  And  so  the 
administration  continued  to  be  exercised  until  another 
pope  crowned  Charles  the  Great  as  first  emperor  of 
a  new  Western  line. 

The  result  of  the  War  of  the  Images  was  the  final 
establishment  of  the  temporal  power ;  but  in  the  chang- 
ing chances  of  the  times  it  came  about  that  the  south, 
or  at  least  that  part  of  it  which  was  not  controlled  by 
the  Lombard  Duchy  of  Benevento,  began  to  occupy 
a  new  position.  The  emperor  had  succeeded  in  con- 
fiscating the  Patrimony  of  the  Church  in  Calabria 
and  in  Sicily,  which  practically  meant  that  the  Sicilian 
Church  was  thenceforth  to  be  controlled  by  the  Patri- 
arch of  Constantinople,  instead  of  by  the  Pope  of  Rome. 
In  Sicily,  and  the  south,  the  edict  against  images  was 
enforced  during  more  than  a  century,  and  Sicilian 
ecclesiastical  writers  speak  with  pride  of  the  persecu- 
tion suffered  by  their  countrymen.  Antiochus,  gov- 
ernor of  Sicily,  and  others  who  refused  to  submit  to 
what  they  considered  an  heretical  domination,  were 
martyred  in  the  Hippodrome,  at  Constantinople,  in  the 
year  766,  with  a  cruelty  that  might  have  satisfied  Nero. 
In  772,  Jacob,  Bishop  of  Catania,  died  a  martyr's  death  ; 
Methodius,  of  Syracuse,  was  scourged,  and  confined  for 

VOL.    II  F 


66  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

seven  years  in  a  subterranean  prison  with  two  thieves, 
and  when  one  of  the  latter  died,  the  jailors  refused  to 
remove  his  body.  But  this  same  Methodius  was  freed 
at  last,  attained  to  great  dignities,  and  ended  his  life  as 
Patriarch  of  Constantinople.  To  punish  them  for  their 
attachment  to  Rome,  the  unfortunate  Sicilians  were 
forced  to  pay  taxes  one-third  higher  than  those  levied 
upon  the  other  subjects  of  the  Empire.  As  if  such 
misfortunes  were  not  enough,  Sicily  was  exposed  to 
the  raids  of  the  Arabs,  who  as  yet  had  not  the  power 
to  conquer  and  hold  the  island,  but  who  swarmed  about 
it  like  wasps  about  a  peach  tree  laden  with  sweet  fruit, 
and  against  whom  the  Byzantine  troops  seem  to  have 
been  well-nigh  powerless  ;  and  it  was  not  until  the  ninth 
century  that  the  respectable  people  of  Sicily  followed 
the  example  of  the  Italians  of  Venice  and  Ravenna, 
and  armed  themselves,  forming  a  regular  militia  for  the 
general  protection  of  the  country. 

The  oppression  suffered  in  consequence  of  the  war  of 
the  holy  images  was  not  without  interruptions.  From 
time  to  time,  when  it  was  known  that  the  Mohamme- 
dans were  so  near  Constantinople  as  to  paralyze  the 
forces  of  the  Empire  at  their  centre,  or  when  other 
circumstances  produced  a  similar  state  of  things,  the 
people  of  Sicily  rose,  under  the  leadership  of  a  discon- 
tented Byzantine  general,  or  a  disaffected  governor. 
It  was  the  last  of  those  insurrections  that  led  directly  to 
the  Mohammedan  conquest.  Before  that  took  place, 


The  Goths  and  the   Byzantines  67 

however,  another  event  happened  which  produced 
results  of  the  greatest  importance  to  history.  Grego- 
rius  Asbesta,  Bishop  of  Syracuse,  quarrelled  with  Igna- 
tius, Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  and  in  the  course  of 
the  conflict  won  the  friendship  of  the  celebrated  theo- 
logian Photius,  who  was  the  emperor's  favourite.  Igna- 
tius appealed  to  the  Pope,  who  took  his  side,  and 
condemned  both  Photius  and  Gregorius  Asbesta.  There- 
upon the  emperor  deposed  Ignatius,  and  made  Photius 
patriarch  in  spite  of  the  Pope,  causing  him  to  be  conse- 
crated by  Gregorius.  The  Pope  and  Photius  then 
disagreed  upon  the  dogmatic  point  of  the  Procession 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  Photius  declaring  that  the  Holy 
Ghost  proceeded  from  the  Father  alone,  while  Pope 
Nicholas  the  First  maintained  the  Catholic  belief  em- 
bodied in  the  words  of  the  Creed,  '  proceeding  from  the 
Father  and  the  Son.'  The  result  of  this  disagreement, 
after  a  prolonged  struggle  in  which  Photius  was  alter- 
nately condemned  and  rehabilitated,  was  the  great 
schism  of  the  East  and  West,  that  divided  the  so-called 
Greek  Orthodox  Church  forever  from  the  Roman 
Catholic.  Few  persons  remember  that  a  Sicilian  bishop 
was  the  original  cause  of  difference. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  there  were  now  two 
Empires,  and  that  the  vast  conquests  of  Charlemagne, 
which  outdid  in  extent  those  of  Julius  Caesar,  had  not 
included  Sicily.  The  separation  of  the  island  from 
Rome  was  finally  accomplished,  and  it  remained  attached 


68  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

to  the  tottering  Empire  of  Constantinople,  until  it 
pleased  the  Saracens  to  take  it  for  themselves.  It  was 
included  in  the  same  military  '  thema,'  or  circuit,  as  we 
may  say  for  lack  of  a  better  word,  with  Calabria  and 
Naples,  and  the  boundary  that  .separated  the  two 
Empires  was  that  which  for  a  long  time  had  divided 
the  Duchy  of  Benevento  from  the  small  Greek 
Duchies  that  followed  the  western  coast  of  Italy,  from 
Gaeta  to  Reggio.  The  value  of  this  region  to  Con- 
stantinople was  twofold ;  its  agricultural  wealth  made 
it  a  most  valuable  possession,  though  one  not  easy  to 
keep,  and  it  served  as  a  basis  for  attempts  at  regaining 
influence  in  the  west.  Charlemagne,  who  never  meant 
to  reside  in  Rome,  was  not  willing  to  renew  his  quarrel 
with  the  east  for  the  sake  of  giving  back  to  Rome  her 
ancient  granary.  Had  he  chosen  to  seize  Sicily,  he 
could  have  done  so,  of  course,  and  if  he  had  taken  it, 
and  had  unified  it  with  Italy  under  a  good  government, 
the  subsequent  history  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire 
might  have  been  very  different.  The  popes  did  not 
cease  to  exert  their  influence  to  bring  about  such  a 
result,  in  the  hope  of  recovering  some  of  their  best 
possessions ;  but  every  effort  was  in  vain,  and  the  sep- 
aration was  complete.  It  was  soon  to  be  made  still 
more  irrevocable  by  the  Mohammedan  conquest  of  the 
south.  From  the  very  earliest  times  there  seems  to 
have  been  something  fated  in  the  division  of  Italy  into 
north  and  south,  which  more  than  sufficiently  accounts 


The  Goths  and  the   Byzantines  69 

for  the  hereditary  ill-feeling  that  still  exists  between  the 
two. 

At  the  close  of  this  period  of  southern  history  in 
the  early  part  of  the  ninth  century,  the  Byzantine 
Empire  was  in  possession  of  the  great  island  and  of 
the  western  side  of  the  mainland,  a  great  part  of 
which,  however,  enjoyed  more  independence  than 
Sicily  itself.  The  east  side,  from  some  point  north 
of  Benevento  to  the  Gulf  of  Taranto,  was  a  single 
Lombard  Duchy,  comprising  the  rich  lands  and  pas- 
tures of  Apulia  and  Lucania,  and  the  Lombard  Dukes 
threatened  to  annex  Naples.  At  this  time,  about  two 
hundred  years  after  the  Hejira,  the  Mohammedan 
dominions  extended  from  the  borders  of  India, 
through  Persia,  Arabia,  Egypt,  and  Northern  Africa, 
to  the  straits  of  Gibel-el-Tarik,  or  Gibraltar,  and  Spain. 
The  conquest  of  those  countries  had  continued  with- 
out interruption  since  the  days  of  Mohammed,  and 
though  the  Mohammedans  were  supposed  to  live 
under  one  sovereign,  the  Khalif  of  Bagdad,  they  had,  in 
fact,  founded  a  number  of  perfectly  independent  king- 
doms, united  only  in  their  hatred  of  Christianity,  but 
sometimes  at  war  with  each  other,  especially  in  Africa. 
Perhaps  no  one  of  them  would  have  been  a  match 
for  Constantinople  in  a  regular  naval  war  at  that  time, 
but  as  the  Mohammedans  were  practically  masters 
of  the  sea,  and  collected  their  pirate  vessels  from 
time  to  time  in  small  but  active  fleets,  they  were  able 


7O  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

to  concentrate  enough  ships  and  men  at  any  point 
from  Gibraltar  to  the  shores  of  Asia  Minor  to  bid 
defiance  to  the  scattered  navy  and  unready  soldiers 
of  the  Empire.  Their  conquest  of  Sicily  and  of  the 
south  was  not  an  isolated  action,  but  formed  a  part 
of  their  national  career,  and  it  was  to  be  foreseen  that 
they  must  succeed  in  the  enterprise  with  no  great  loss 
to  themselves,  as  soon  as  they  should  choose  to  attempt 
it  seriously. 

The  Saracens 

THE  end  of  the  Byzantine  domination  in  the  south 
was  brought  about  by  one  of  those  insurrections 
against  the  injustice  of  the  rulers  to  which  reference 
has  already  been  made.  The  north  of  Africa  was 
under  the  domination  of  an  Arab  chief  who  had  suc- 
ceeded in  inducing  the  Khalif  of  Bagdad  to  counte- 
nance his  independent  supremacy.  This  Ibrahim 
appears  to  have  had  some  inkling  of  civilized  govern- 
ment, and  in  order  to  promote  the  commerce  of  his 
people  with  the  Sicilians  he  agreed  to  a  peace  which 
was  to  last  ten  years.  Unfortunately  Ibrahim  could 
not  make  himself  responsible  for  the  peaceful  con- 
duct of  other  Mohammedan  princes,  who  continued 
their  depredations  for  some  time  unhindered,  and  his 
successor  returned  to  the  traditional  ways  of  his  race. 
He  prepared  an  expedition  which  had  no  definite 


The  Saracens  71 

object  except  to  plunder  Christian  countries.  On  this 
occasion  the  Mohammedans  fell  upon  the  islands  west 
of  Naples,  and  took  what  plunder  they  could  gather 
from  Ponza  and  Ischia ;  but  some  part  of  the  fleet 
having  been  lost,  a  new  treaty  was  ratified.  It  was 
not  observed  with  good  faith,  however,  and  before  the 
time  of  its  expiration  another  flying  attack  was  made 
upon  Sicily. 

The  event  which  was  to  have  such  great  and  last- 
ing results  for  the  south  was  finally  brought  about 
in  the  following  manner.  In  the  year  826,  the  Em- 
peror Michael  Balbus  was  obliged  to  exert  every 
energy  to  preserve  his  sovereignty  and  Constantinople 
against  the  attacks  of  a  rival.  It  being  known  that 
he  was  thus  occupied,  the  troops  in  Sicily  seized  the 
opportunity  to  rise  against  the  governor.  They  had 
momentarily  underrated  the  emperor's  strength,  how- 
ever, the  insurrection  was  partially  repressed,  and  a 
new  governor  named  Photinus  was  sent  to  reduce  the 
unruly  province  to  order.  Among  those  suspected 
of  favouring  the  revolution  there  was  a  certain  rich 
landholder  named  Euphemius,  who  appears  to  have 
had  a  great  following.  Unable  to  find  satisfactory 
proof  against  him,  Photinus  trumped  up  an  accusa- 
tion which,  if  proved,  would  have  ruined  him.  Eu- 
phemius, it  was  said,  had  been  guilty  of  no  less  a 
crime  than  that  of  carrying  off  a  beautiful  nun  from 
a  Sicilian  convent.  The  accused  man  gathered  his 


72  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

followers  about  him  and  defied  the  governor ;  a 
pitched  battle  ensued,  in  which  he  was  victorious.  He 
took  possession  of  Syracuse,  and  not  content  with  the 
result  of  the  contest,  actually  declared  himself  em- 
peror. The  idea  was  novel  and  daring,  and  presented 
so  many  attractions  to  adventurous  minds  that  a 
counter-insurrection  almost  immediately  followed ;  but 
in  the  confusion  the  Byzantine  troops,  who  seem  to 
have  acknowledged  some  sort  of  authority,  got  the 
better,  and  Euphemius  fled  from  Syracuse  to  Africa 
and  to  the  Mohammedans.  He  proposed  that  they 
should  help  him  to  conquer  Sicily  and  establish  him- 
self as  its  sovereign,  on  condition  of  paying  a  yearly 
tribute  forever  afterwards.  In  the  execution  of  this 
scheme,  Euphemius  came  into  contact  with  a  force  of 
which  he  had  not  expected  the  existence.  Among 
the  chief  persons  at  the  Mohammedan  court  was  the 
Kadi  of  the  capital,  the  aged  Ased,  a  man  who  had 
the  reputation  of  being  a  profound  jurist,  and  who 
was  certainly  a  religious  fanatic,  willing  to  go  to  any 
length  for  his  convictions.  In  answer  to  the  repre- 
sentations of  Euphemius,  he  replied  that  if  the  war 
were  fought  at  all,  it  should  be  fought  in  order  to 
carry  the  Mohammedan  faith  among  the  Christians 
of  the  south,  and  he  let  it  be  understood  that  it  would 
matter  little  what  became  of  Euphemius  himself,  pro- 
vided that  an  unbelieving  country  could  be  brought 
under  the  rule  of  the  faithful.  He  himself  was  ap- 


The  Saracens  73 

pointed  the  general  of  the  Mohammedan  forces,  and  on 
the  thirteenth  of  June,  827,  he  sailed  for  Sicily  with  a  fleet 
of  a  hundred  ships,  in  which  he  embarked  no  less  than 
ten  thousand  foot  soldiers,  and  seven  hundred  horse- 
men. According  to  the  Sicilian  chronicle,  given  by 
Muratori  from  the  Cambridge  manuscript,  the  expedi- 
tion landed  in  Sicily  in  the  middle  of  the  month  of 
July,  but  Amari  says  that  the  Mohammedans  landed  at 
Mazzara  on  the  sixteenth  of  June,  which  allows  only  three 
days  for  the  passage.  Be  that  as  it  may,  the  Moham- 
medans overcame  the  Byzantines  in  the  first  engage- 
ment, and  marched  with  little  hindrance  along  the 
south  coast  in  the  direction  of  Syracuse,  while  the 
imperial  troops  took  refuge  in  the  stronghold  of 
Henna,  now  Castrogiovanni.  Ased  made  a  bold  dash 
at  the  capital  of  the  island,  but  he  encountered  the 
same  difficulties  which,  long  ago,  had  wrought  the 
ruin  of  Athenians  and  Carthaginians  alike.  The  re- 
sources of  the  immediate  neighbourhood  were  ex- 
hausted, and  the  besiegers  suffered  severely  from  lack 
of  provisions ;  with  the  first  autumn  rains  the  fatal 
miasma  of  the  Lysimeleian  swamp  spread  a  deadly 
pestilence  through  the  Mohammedan  army,  and  the 
aged  general  himself  fell  a  victim  to  the  sickness. 
The  Mohammedans  now  attempted  to  leave  the  har- 
bour with  their  ships  as  the  Athenians  had  done,  but, 
like  them,  were  beaten  by  the  Syracusan  fleet,  and 
like  them,  also,  were  driven  by  sheer  necessity  to 


74  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

attempt  a  retreat  by  land.  Where  the  Athenians  had 
been  finally  destroyed  by  the  superior  activity  of 
Gylippus,  however,  the  Mohammedans  succeeded  in 
making  good  their  retreat,  and  though  they  had  failed 
to  take  Syracuse,  they  were  never  again  driven  from 
the  shores  of  Sicily.  Taking  refuge  in  the  strong 
retreat  afforded  by  the  citadel  of  Mineo  on  the 
northern  slope  of  the  Ereian  hills,  they  soon  recov- 
ered from  the  effects  of  starvation  and  fever,  regained 
their  courage  and  energy,  and  prepared  to  carry  on 
the  war  with  unabated  vigour.  Descending  in  force, 
but  no  longer  in  the  direction  of  the  capital,  they 
seized  Girgenti  and  boldly  attacked  Henna  itself.  Of 
its  name  they  made  Kasr  Janna,  meaning  'the  for- 
tress of  John,'  and  the  city  has  retained  the  appella- 
tion in  modern  times.  So  sure  were  they  of  reducing 
the  almost  impregnable  stronghold,  that  they  even 
coined  money  which  bore  its  name.  But  an  attempt 
made  by  Euphemius  himself  to  induce  the  defenders 
to  surrender  ended  in  his  death,  and  shortly  after- 
wards a  Byzantine  army  came  to  the  rescue ;  the 
Mohammedans  were  obliged  to  abandon  the  siege  and 
to  withdraw  to  Mineo,  while  the  garrison  they  had 
left  in  Girgenti  retreated  to  the  little  island  stronghold 
of  Mazzara,  less  than  twenty  miles  from  Marsala. 
These  were  the  only  two  places  held  by  the  Saracens 
in  829,  but  they  succeeded  in  keeping  possession  of 
them  until  the  following  year,  when  they  renewed  the 


The  Saracens  75 

war  with  large  reinforcements,  and  they  took  Palermo 
in  832  after  a  siege  in  which  more  than  nine-tenths 
of  the  population  perished.  They  now  commanded 
the  western  portion  of  the  island,  while  the  Byzan- 
tines still  held  Syracuse  and  the  east.  The  Cam- 
bridge '  Chronicon  Sicilum '  recapitulates  the  events  of 
the  forty-seven  years  during  which  the  Saracens  com- 
pleted the  conquest,  beginning  with  the  statement  that 
they  came  to  Sicily  in  the  middle  of  July,  827.  In 
831  they  took  Messina,  and  the  Patrician  Theodotus 
was  slain,  and  in  832  Palermo  fell.  Ten  years  later, 
in  842,  Sicily  was  plagued  by  locusts.  In  845  the 
Saracens  had  advanced  so  far  southward  as  to  cap- 
ture the  fortresses  of  Modica,  on  the  crags  above  the 
river  Magro,  where  the  wild  cactus  grows  against  the 
ruined  castle  walls.  The  next  year  the  Moslems 
fought  the  Byzantines  before  Castrogiovanni,  and 
slew  nine  thousand  of  them.  In  847  they  had  moved 
round  Syracuse  far  enough  to  take  Leontini,  and  a 
year  later  they  completed  the  chain  of  strong  places 
behind  them  by  seizing  Ragusa  the  first  time ;  and, 
moreover,  there  was  a  great  famine.  Six  years  passed 
after  this,  during  which  nothing  happened  worth 
recording,  and  in  854  the  Saracens  took  Butera  near 
the  south  coast,  not  far  from  Licata ;  but  another 
source  informs  us  that  they  besieged  the  strong  place 
five  months  and  departed  at  last,  being  bribed  to  give 
up  the  attempt  by  the  surrender  of  six  thousand  of 


76 


The  Rulers  of  the  South 


the  inhabitants  as  slaves.  Four  years  after  this  a 
number  of  ships,  commanded  by  a  certain  Ali,  were 
taken  by  the  Byzantines,  but  in  859  Castrogiovanni 


BELL  TOWER   AT   I'AOLA    IN    CALABRIA,    THE   BIRTHPLACE    OF    SAN 
FRANCESCO    DI    PAOI.A 

was  at  last  taken,  and  from  that  lofty  height  the 
Saracens  overlooked  and  dominated  most  of  the 
island.  The  strong  place  fell  by  treachery,  every 
man  able  to  bear  arms  was  slain,  and  the  rest  of  the 


The  Saracens  77 

people  were  made  slaves.  Some  of  the  beautiful 
women  and  boys  were  thought  worthy  to  be  sent  as 
a  gift  to  the  Khalif  of  Bagdad. 

Ibn  Khaldoun  says  that  Aghlab,  the  governor  of 
Sicily,  died  in  Palermo  in  the  year  858,  having  gov- 
erned the  country  for  nineteen  years,  and  that  the 
Mussulmans  at  his  death  chose  Abas  for  the  emir,  and 
that  he  was  officially  invested  with  the  governorship. 
Until  he  had  received  this  he  had  only  sent  out  small 
expeditions  to  plunder  the  country  in  divers  directions, 
but  as  soon  as  he  had  received  full  authority  he  went 
out  in  person  and  overran  many  parts  of  Sicily,  sack- 
ing everything  in  the  direction  of  Catania,  Syracuse, 
Butera,  and  Ragusa ;  and  that  after  several  engage- 
ments he  took  possession  of  Castrogiovanni.  The 
fullest  account  of  the  events  that  preceded  the  taking 
of  the  latter  place  is  that  of  Ibn-el-Athir.  According 
to  him  Abas  was  in  hopes  that  by  laying  waste  the 
surrounding  country  he  might  tempt  the  Byzantine 
patrician  to  come  out  against  him,  but  that  he  was 
disappointed  in  this;  that  he  attempted  again  to  take 
the  place  two  years  later,  and  that  he  besieged  the 
place  which  the  Arab  historian  calls  Thira  for  the 
space  of  five  months,  took  it,  and  '  pardoned  the  garri- 
son for  the  price  of  five  thousand  heads.'  In  865  Abas 
repulsed  the  troops  which  came  out  against  him  from 
Castrogiovanni  and  besieged  a  place  called  Kasr-el- 
Hadid,  of  which  the  population  offered  him  a  large 


78  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

sum  of  money,  which  he  refused,  and  thereupon,  as 
he  continued  the  siege,  they  surrendered  on  condition 
that  he  would  grant  liberty  to  two  hundred  of  their 
number.  He  sold  the  rest  as  slaves,  and  razed  the 
walls.  With  regard  to  Castrogiovanni  Ibn  Khaldoun 
tells  us  that  Abas  was  about  to  put  to  death  certain  cap- 
tives, when  one  of  them,  who  was  a  man  of  importance, 
offered  to  betray  the  place  in  exchange  for  his  life. 
Abas  consented,  and  the  Mussulmans  were  led  by  night 
to  a  place  that  was  but  weakly  defended,  and  the 
traitor  introduced  them  by  a  secret  entrance.  The 
Arab  adds  that  the  fall  of  the  Greek  power  in  Sicily 
dates  from  that  day,  although  the  emperor  made  the 
most  tremendous  efforts  to  regain  possession  of  the 
island.  The  mortification  of  the  Byzantines  at  the  loss 
of  their  great  fortress  was  boundless,  and  everywhere 
the  people  rose  against  the  conquerors.  Noto  was 
taken,  indeed,  but  was  lost  again ;  the  Byzantines  seized 
a  number  of  Saracen  vessels  ;  Ragusa  had  to  be  recap- 
tured, and  as  a  basis  of  operations  against  Syracuse,  the 
Saracens  took  Malta  in  870.  In  872  a  Mohammedan 
army  had  advanced  upon  the  mainland  as  far  as 
Salerno,  and  perished  there.  At  last  the  fate  of 
Syracuse  was  at  hand ;  the  Mohammedans  held  the 
main  strongholds  throughout  the  island,  reaching  hands, 
as  it  were,  from  hill  to  hill,  and  constantly  narrowing 
the  little  territory  left  to  the  Byzantines. 

We  possess  a  full  and  graphic  account  of  the  last 


The  Saracens  79 

great  siege  which  ended  in  the  destruction  of  Syracuse. 
Theodosius,  a  monk,  was  in  the  city  and  escaped 
death,  though  he  remained  some  time  a  prisoner;  the 
long  letter  which  he  wrote  on  the  subject  to  the  Arch- 
deacon Leo  has  been  used  by  every  historian  as  the 
only  accurate  source  of  information,  and  has  been  so 
often  paraphrased  that  it  may  interest  the  reader  to 
know  by  a  literal  translation  exactly  what  the  good 
man  wrote. 

"The  Epistle  of  the  monk  Theodosius  to  the  Arch- 
deacon Leo  concerning  the  capture  of  Syracuse. 

"Mosx  DIVINE  SIR:  —  To  follow  out  the  details 
of  those  things  which  have  happened  to  us,  a  longer 
time  and  a  more  convenient  occasion  would  be  neces- 
sary, and  a  letter  is  too  short  to  contain  the  whole 
series  of  the  things  that  have  been  done.  On  the 
other  hand  it  seems  to  me  that  to  be  silent  about  these 
things,  and  about  the  common  grief  felt  by  almost 
the  whole  world  —  for  I  can  readily  believe  that  all 
must  pity  us  who  have  even  heard  the  name  of  Syra- 
cuse—  to  keep  silence,  I  say,  would  seem  to  be  the 
part  of  a  paralyzed  intelligence  and  of  a  man  over- 
come by  indolence ;  of  which  one  of  the  prophets  has 
spoken,  as  by  the  mouth  of  God,  saying,  '  I  have  re- 
ceived them  with  scourges  but  they  have  not  repented.' 
But  if  I  undertake  the  narrative  of  these  events,  no 
matter  how,  it  will  be  of  some  use  to  both  of  us.  For 
it  will  bring  me  some  consolation  to  speak,  since  by 


8o  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

speaking  I  have  some  hope  of  being  relieved  from 
the  evils  by  which  I  am  now  tormented,  because  it 
is  a  fact  in  nature  that  if  one  explain  in  words  those 
things  by  which  one  is  troubled,  the  bitterness  of  the 
soul  is  tempered ;  but  you  on  your  parf  shall  at  least 
receive  the  fee  of  tears  if,  perchance,  you  shall  bestow 
them  in  pity  upon  the  narrative  you  follow. 

"  O  you,  sir,  who  have  enjoyed  divine  honours,  we 
are  fallen  into  the  power  of  the  enemy,  and  we  are 
taken  at  last,  nor  did  Jerusalem,  when  it  was  taken, 
experience  worse  things,  neither  Samaria  which  was 
overcome  before  Jerusalem ;  such  ruin  have  we  suffered 
as  never  the  isles  of  Chetim  knew,  nor  barbarous 
countries,  nor  any  cities  that  can  be  "reported.  Such 
was  the  slaughter  that  on  the  same  day  every  weapon 
with  which  defence  had  been  made  was  broken  to 
pieces,  bows,  quivers,  arms,  swords,  and  all  weapons  ; 
the  strong  were  made  weak,  and  the  violence  of  the 
foe  drove  to  surrender  those  defenders,  those  brave 
men  whom  I  may  well  call  giants,  who  laboured  with 
all  their  might,  who  hesitated  not  before  that  day  to 
suffer  hunger  and  all  labours,  and  to  be  pierced  with 
numberless  wounds  for  the  love  of  Christ,  and  who 
were  all  put  to  the  sword  after  the  city  was  taken. 
At  length  we  are  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy, 
though  for  a  long  time  we  defended  ourselves  from 
the  walls,  and  though  many  times  there  was  fighting 
on  the  sea,  which  indeed  was  a  horrible  sight,  filling 


FOUNTAIN    IN   THE   CLOISTER  OF  THE   NORMAN 
CATHEDRAL  AT   MONREALE 


Rulers  of  the  South 

I  have  some  hope  of  being  relieved  from 
5.  he  evils  by  which  "I  am  now  tormented,  because  it 
is  a  fact  in  nature  that  if  one  explain  in  words  those 
things  by  which  one  is  troubled,  the  bitterness  of  the 
soul  is  tempered  ;  but  you  on  your  part  shall  at  least 
receive  the  fee  of  tears  if,  perchance,  you  shall  bestow 
them  in  pity  upon  the  narrative  you  follow. 

"  O  you,  sir,  who  have  enjoyed  divine  honours,  we 
are  fallen  into  the   ]  t   the  enemy,  and  we  are 

taken  at  last,  nor  did  J;  when  it  was  taken, 

'experience  worse  things,   nci  naria   which  was 

overcome  before  Jerusalem  ;  such  .  e  suffered 

as  never  the  isles  of  Chetim  knew,  nor  barbarous 
countries,  nor  any  cities  that  can  be  reported.  Such 
was  the  slaughter  that  on  the  same  day  every  weapon 
with  which  defence  had  been  made  was  broken  to 
piece's,  bows,  qui 

the  strong  were   '  o  of  the 

foe  drove  to   sur,  those   brave 

men  whom  I  may  well  c  .  ho  laboured  with 

all  their  might,  who  i  not  before  that  day  to 

hunger  and  all  labours,  and  to  be  pierced  with 

•erless    wounds   for   the  love  of   Christ,   and  who 

all  put  to  the  sword  after  the  city  was   taken. 

ngth  we  are  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy, 

h    for  a  long  time  we  defended  ourselves   from 

the  walls,  and  though  many  times  there  was  fighting 

d  was  a  horrible  sight,  filling 
HHT  MI  &ATMUOH 


3JA3HMOM   TA   JAHQHHTAO 


The  Saracens  81 

with  consternation  the  eyes  of  those  that  looked,  for 
the  vision  is  indeed  .dismayed  by  the  atrocity  of  those 
things  which  are  often  brought  before  it.  We  were 
vanquished  after  many  attacks  made  upon  us  by  night, 
and  many  a  hostile  ambush,  after  engines  had  been 
brought  up  against  the  walls  with  which  these  were 
pounded  almost  all  day,  after  a  grievous  storm  of 
stones  hurled  against  our  works,  when  the  tortoise- 
shed  that  destroys  cities  had  been  used  against  us, 
and  those  things  which  they  call  subterranean  rats ; 
for  not  one  of  those  things  which  are  of  use  for  taking 
a  city  was  left  untried  by  those  who  were  in  charge 
of  the  siege  ;  the  intense  desire  to  possess  our  city 
had  already  inflamed  their  hearts,  and  they  contended 
to  the  utmost  with  one  another,  excogitating  new 
engines  from  day  to  day,  the  more  easily  to  take  and 
destroy  the  city.  Nevertheless,  in  the  admirable  wis- 
dom of  His  councils,  God  protected  us  in  a  measure 
from  these.  But  of  what  use  is  it  to  continue  any 
further  in  tragic  strain,  complaining  of  the  chaos  of 
evils  which  our  enemies  heaped  upon  us  by  their 
enormous  ingenuity  ?  Did  they  leave  anything  unin- 
vented  or  untried,  which  seemed  to  them  capable  of 
inspiring  terror  in  the  besieged,  and  of  filling  their 
hearts  with  dismay  ? 

"  Time  admonishes  me  to  turn  to  those  things  which 
were  done  within  the  city,  and  I  shall  say  a  few  words 
at  length  concerning  these  matters ;  without,  the  sword 


82  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

laid  waste  our  strength,  and  fear  did  so  within,  so 
that  I  might  well  say  that  in  that  ancient  prophecy 
Moses  spoke  of  us.  For  as  before  we  had  sinned 
against  God  like  the  people  of  Israel,  we  have  drunk 
of  the  same  cup  of  the  divine  wrath  that  Israel  drank ; 
we  were  taken  captive  after  we  had  suffered  hunger 
long,  feeding  upon  herbs,  after  having  thrust  into 
our  mouths  in  our  extreme  need  even  filthy  things, 
after  men  had  even  devoured  their  children  —  a  fright- 
ful deed,  that  should  be  passed  in  silence,  although 
we  had  before  abhorred  human  flesh  —  oh  !  hideous 
spectacle  —  but  who,  for  his  own  dignity's  sake,  could 
weep  such  deeds  in  tragic  strain  ?  We  did  not  abstain 
from  eating  leather  and  the  skins  of  oxen,  nor  from 
any  other  things  soever  which  seemed  capable  of 
relieving  men  exhausted  by  hunger,  and  we  spared 
not  even  dry  bones,  but  dressed  them  to  make  our- 
selves a  cheerful  meal  —  a  new  sort  of  food  abhorrent 
to  the  custom  of  mortal  men.  What  will  not  unceas- 
ing hunger  force  men  to  do  ?  Many  of  the  Syracusans 
were  driven  to  grind  the  bones  of  four-footed  beasts 
in  the  mill,  and  these  wretched  men  stilled  their  hunger 
with  the  stuff,  after  wetting  it  with  a  very  little  water. 
The  fountain  of  Arethusa  supplied  us  abundantly  with 
water  for  such  uses.  A  measure  of  wheat  was  sold 
for  a  hundred  and  fifty  pieces  of  gold,  but  the  millers 
sold  it  for  more,  even  for  two  hundred  gold  pieces, 
so  that,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  a  roll  weighing  two 


The  Saracens  83 

ounces  was  sold  for  a  piece  of  gold.  Add  to  this, 
that  a  beast  of  burden  was  sold  for  as  much  more 
than  three  hundred  gold  pieces  as  it  was  the  more  fit 
for  food  when  put  up  for  sale,  and  the  head  of  a  horse 
went  to  fifteen  gold  pieces  and  sometimes  even  to 
twenty ;  the  flesh  of  asses  was  considered  something 
most  delicious.  No  sort  of  domestic  bird  or  fowl  was 
left,  and  oil  and  all  sorts  of  salt  provisions  had  long 
been  eaten  up,  even  such  things  which,  as  Gregorius 
Theologus  says,  are  usually  the  food  of  the  poor;  no 
cheese,  no  vegetables,  no  fish.  Already  the  enemy 
had  forcibly  taken  possession  of  the  two  harbours 
between  which  Syracuse  lies,  having  previously  levelled 
to  the  ground  the  defences  which  were  called  the 
1  brachiolia,'  and  which  once  kept  the  enemy  from 
entering  the  harbours.  Now  this  thing  came  to  pass, 
by  far  the  most  terrible  thing ;  a  most  grievous  pesti- 
lence, alas,  followed  upon  famine,  and  some  were  tor- 
mented by  the  disease  called  lock-jaw,  so  named  from 
the  contraction  of  the  nerves ;  apoplexy  dried  up  half 
of  the  bodies  of  some  others,  it  killed  others  instantly, 
but  many  who  were  attacked  by  the  same  disease 
could  only  move  half  their  bodies  or  were  altogether 
deprived  of  the  power  of  motion ;  others,  their  bodies 
inflated  like  bladders,  presented  a  horrid  spectacle  to 
the  beholder,  and  though  death  was  always  hanging 
over  them,  it  hardly  set  those  wretched  creatures  free 
in  the  end  with  the  severest  suffering,  for  even  death 


84  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

was  obeying  the  divine  command,  and  was  thereby 
not  a  little  retarded.  Indeed,  to  those  things  which 
I  have  already  mentioned,  very  many  more  could  be 
added,  which  would  require  a  longer  narrative  than  can 
be  sent  by  a  man  given  up  to  custody.  For  what 
else  can  I  do  than  condense  and  crowd  such  great 
things  into  few  words,  being  shut  up  in  prison  where 
I  have  not  one  hour  of  peace  and  quiet  ?  The  thick 
darkness  of  my  prison,  which  hangs  over  my  eyes, 
weakens  and  dulls  my  sight,  and  the  noises  made  by 
the  others  who  are  confined  in  the  same  place  agitate 
and  disturb  my  mind. 

"  The  tower,  which  was  built  at  the  greater  port,  at 
the  right-hand  angle  of  the  city,  was  first  struck  and 
then  partly  fell  down  under  the  violence  of  the  catapults 
with  which  the  enemy  hurled  enormous  stones.  Five 
days  after  the  destruction  of  this  tower,  the  wall  of  the 
rampart,  which  had  before  been  connected  with  the 
tower,  was  destroyed  by  the  force  of  the  catapults ; 
thereupon  great  terror  entered  into  the  hearts  of  the 
besieged,  but  nevertheless  those  noble  and  truly  brave 
men  sustained  the  attack  of  the  enemy  under  the  leader- 
ship of  his  blessedness  the  Duke  and  Patrician,  and  did 
their  best  to  second  his  tremendous  exertions,  beyond 
all  that  can  be  expressed  in  words,  during  twenty  days 
and  as  many  nights,  when  a  wall  fell  down  upon  those 
who  were  bravely  and  nobly  defending  the  approach 
on  that  side,  and  who  thus  manifested  their  inborn  nobil- 


The  Saracens  85 

ity  of  spirit,  and  held  it  to  be  the  highest  praise  to  be 
wounded  in  every  part  of  their  bodies  for  the  defence 
of  the  city.  And  now,  indeed,  whoever  chose  to  go  to 
that  rampart,  which  was  called  by  the  people  the  Un- 
fortunate, might  see  there  many  men  mutilated  in  divers 
and  strange  ways ;  for  some  had  their  eyes  dug  out,  and 
others  had  their  noses  cut  off,  some  had  lost  their 
ears,  others  their  eyelids ;  the  jaws  of  others  were 
red  with  blood  from  wounds  of  darts  and  arrows, 
and  some  were  wounded  in  the  forehead,  and  some 
in  the  heart,  and  in  many  ways;  the  bodies  of  some, 
the  breasts  of  others,  lay  open  from  the  wounds 
they  had  received ;  they  suffered,  in  a  word,  not  here 
and  there,  but  in  every  part.  For  the  enemy  besieged 
the  city  with  all  their  forces,  and  was  so  far  superior 
in  numbers,  that  although  it  is  hardly  to  be  believed,  a 
hundred  of  them  fought  hand  to  hand  with  one  of  us, 
covering  their  antagonists  with  no  common  glory  in 
dangers  which  it  required  the  highest  courage  to  face. 
But  I  used  to  call  to  mind  the  zeal  of  the  athletes  when- 
ever I  came  to  a  place  where  they  were  fighting  fear- 
lessly and  splendidly  and  earning  great  glory  for  deeds 
well  done.  But  when  the  number  of  our  sins  had  so 
greatly  increased  that  the  drawn  sword  of  the  wrath  of 
God  was  drunk  with  them,  then,  on  the  twenty  and  first 
day  of  May,  and  on  the  fourth  day  after  the  wall  had 
fallen,  the  city  was  reduced  into  the  power  of  the 
enemy ;  and  the  manner  in  which  it  was  taken  is  well 


86 


The  Rulers  of  the  South 


worth  describing,  for  it  was  full  of  horror.  For  when 
the  stern  displeasure  of  God  against  us  had  scattered 
hither  and  thither  the  stoutest  of  those  who  resisted 
the  enemy,  and  had  called  away  our  famous  Patrician 


CLOISTER   OF   SAN    FRANCESCO    DI    PAOLA 

with  his  companions  from  the  walls  to  their  own  houses, 
in  order  that  they  might  take  some  food  for  their  bodies' 
sake,  then  it  was  put  into  the  hearts  of  the  barbarians  to 
renew  the  attack  at  that  fatal  tower  of  which  I  have 


The  Saracens  87 

spoken ;  and  when  they  had  advanced  those  engines 
which  they  used  for  throwing  stones,  the  murderous 
traitors  who  invaded  our  city  enjoyed  the  spectacle. 
Nor  had  they  undertaken  a  hard  matter,  since  but  a  few 
soldiers  were  guarding  the  tower,  and  the  citizens  did 
not  suppose  that  it  was  a  time  for  fighting,  so  our 
defenders  felt  safe  and  thought  of  nothing  less  than 
of  going  to  the  ramparts.  Therefore,  while  the  enemy 
were  hurling  stones  into  the  city  in  a  fearful  manner, 
and  compassed  it  all  round  about,  a  certain  wooden 
ladder,  over  which  the  half-ruined  tower  was  usually 
reached  by  the  garrison,  was  broken  down,  and  there- 
upon a  great  din  arose ;  when  the  Patrician  heard  this, 
he  sprang  up  at  once  from  the  table  without  finishing 
his  meal,  full  of  great  anxiety  for  the  ladder.  As  soon 
as  the  barbarians  perceived  that  the  ladder  was  broken 
down,  for  they  were  hurling  their  stones  in  its  vicinity, 
they  approached  the  walls  with  the  greatest  alacrity, 
and  seeing  but  a  few  men  guarding  the  tower,  vigor- 
ously drove  them  back  and  slew  them  ;  and  among  them 
was  the  blessed  John  Patrinus.  After  this  they  as- 
cended without  opposition  and  took  possession  of  the 
place,  and  thence  they  spread  through  the  city  like  a 
river  in  the  sight  of  those  who  were  gathering  together 
to  defend  it.  First  they  slew  to  the  last  man  those  who 
were  drawn  up  in  line  against  them  at  the  porch  of  the 
Church  of  the  Saviour,  and  with  a  great  rush  they 
opened  the  doors  and  entered  the  temple  with  drawn 


88  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

swords,  seeming,  as  they  panted  for  breath,  to  emit  fire 
from  their  nostrils  and  eyes.  Then  indeed  people  of 
all  ages  fell  in  a  moment  by  the  edge  of  the  sword, 
princes  and  judges  of  the  earth,  as  we  sing  in  the 
psalms,  young  men  and  maidens,  old  men  and  children, 
both  monks  and  those  joined  in  matrimony,  the  priests 
and  the  people,  the  slave  and  the  free  man,  and  even 
sick  persons  who  had  lain  a  long  time  in  bed.  Merciful 
God,  the  butchers  could  not  even  spare  these ;  for  the 
soul  that  thirsts  for  human  blood  is  not  easily  satisfied 
by  the  death  of  those  who  first  face  it  in  anger.  And  I 
may  use  the  words  of  the  holy  Sophonias  to  tell  of  that 
day  of  disaster  and  of  woe,  that  day  of  fear  and  ruin, 
that  day  of  darkness  and  of  gloom.  But  of  what  use 
is  it  to  narrate  in  many  words  each  separate  thing  that 
happened  to  the  chief  men,  since  such  an  account  would 
strike  horror  to  the  ears  that  heard,  and  even  to  the 
very  soul  ? 

"  Our  great  Patrician,  who  had  retired  into  a  certain 
fort,  was  taken  alive  with  seventy  men  on  the  next  day, 
and  on  the  eighth  day  after  the  fall  of  the  city  he  was 
executed.  He  bore  his  fate  with  so  high  and  brave  a 
heart  as  to  admit  nothing  unworthy  of  his  constancy, 
nor  did  he  show  the  very  smallest  sign  of  fear ;  nor  is 
that  strange,  since  it  had  been  impossible  to  induce  him 
by  any  means  to  betray  the  city  for  his  own  safety, 
though  there  were  many  about  him  not  only  ready  to 
approve  the  plan,  but  to  help  in  its  execution,  had  he 


The  Saracens  89 

wished  it ;  but  he  chose  to  die  without  stain,  trusting  to 
save  those  who  were  with  him  by  sacrificing  his  own 
life  for  many,  after  the  example  of  our  Lord,  rather 
than  to  let  his  mind  dwell  upon  anything  unworthy  of 
his  honour ;  yet  he  moved  not  the  hearts  of  his  mur- 
derers to  any  pity  whatsoever.  His  courage  was  so 
great,  and  his  readiness  to  suffer  the  last  extremity, 
that  even  Busa,  the  son  of  the  Emir  Hajeb,  who  com- 
manded his  death,  was  filled  with  great  admiration. 
But  he  himself  had  gained  this  fortitude  to  die  in  such 
good  and  holy  fashion  because  he  had  spent  the  whole 
time  of  the  war  in  the  contemplation  of  death,  and  had 
excellently  exhorted  those  who  were  besieged  with  him, 
showing  them  the  way  that  leads  to  immortality,  where- 
fore, by  these  deeds  of  goodness,  he  had  learned  to  fear 
the  end  of  life  but  little;  for  to  those  who  have  pre- 
pared themselves  by  a  continual  meditation,  lest  they 
should  find  their  hearts  unready  to  suffer  the  end,  the 
journey  hence  to  heaven  is  not  joyless,  when  it  comes  at 
last.  But  the  barbarians  took  those  whom  they  had  made 
prisoners  with  the  Patrician,  all  born  in  Syracuse,  and 
of  high  station,  and  some  other  captives  also,  and  led 
them  out  of  the  city,  and  made  them  stand  together 
within  a  circle  ;  and  they  fell  upon  them  with  a  rush, 
like  wild  dogs,  and  slew  them,  some  with  stones,  some 
with  clubs,  some  with  the  spears  they  had  in  their 
hands,  and  others  with  such  weapons  as  they  found  by 
accident,  pressing  upon  them  most  cruelly;  and  furi- 


go  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

ously  raging  in  their  hearts,  they  consumed  their  bodies 
with  fire.  I  cannot  pass  over  with  silence  the  barbar- 
ous cruelties  they  perpetrated  upon  Nicetas.  This  man 
was  of  Tarsian  family,  most  wise  and  brave  in  war,  and 
during  the  siege  he  used  daily  to  heap  many  curses  upon 
Mohammed,  who  is. held  by  that  nation  to  be  the  great- 
est of  the  prophets.  So  they  separated  him  from  the 
number  of  those  who  were  to  be  slain,  and  they  stretched 
him  upon  the  ground  on  his  back,  and  they  flayed 
him  alive  from  his  breast  downward,  and  they  tore 
to  pieces  his  protruding  vitals  with  spears;  and,  more- 
over, with  their  hands  they  tore  the  heart  out  of  the 
man  while  he  yet  breathed,  and  lacerated  it  with  their 
teeth,  most  monstrously,  and  dashed  it  upon  the  earth 
and  stoned  it,  and  then  at  last  were  satiated,  and  left  it ; 
but  of  these  things  elsewhere.  Now  I,  who  had  already 
returned  to  favour  with  the  bishop  a  second  time,  and 
was  with  him  in  the  cathedral  assisting  him  at  prayers 
at  the  sixth  hour,  heard  with  my  ears  how  the  tower 
was  taken  by  the  barbarians,  as  we  came  to  the  end  of 
the  canticle.  At  this  news  no  small  fear  entered  into 
the  hearts  of  those  who  heard,  for  what  thing  not  terri- 
ble could  we  expect,  being  about  to  fall  most  certainly 
into  the  blood-stained  hands  of  our  enemies  ?  Never- 
theless, taking  courage  as  we  could,  and  while  the 
enemy  were  engaged  in  plunder  within  sight  of  the 
church,  we  fled  with  two  other  clerks  to  the  altar  of 
the  cathedral,  naked  and  ashamed,  for  we  had  cast  off 


The  Saracens  91 

all  our  garments,  excepting  what  we  wore  that  was  of 
leather.  The  most  blessed  father  (our  bishop)  had  been 
accustomed  to  conciliate  the  wrath  of  God  at  this  altar, 
and  to  ask  help  for  his  children,  and  his  prayers 
had  been  answered  ;  and  this  wonderful  thing  experi- 
ence had  shown  very  often,  although  at  this  time  his 
prayers  were  rejected  by  the  mysterious  counsels  of  the 
heavenly  judges.  When,  therefore,  we  found  ourselves 
thus  in  peril,  each  asked  pardon  of  the  other  for  any 
sin  he  had  committed,  and  we  forgave  one  another; 
and  we  gave  thanks  to  God  that  He  had  allowed  us  to 
endure  these  things.  Now,  therefore,  while  the  bishop 
was  commending  his  church  to  the  Guardian  Angel, 
behold  the  enemy  were  suddenly  there,  with  drawn 
swords  wet  with  blood,  and  they  wandered  through  the 
whole  building,  turning  hither  and  thither  ;  and  one  of 
them  departed  out  of  the  throng  that  moved  round,  and 
came  to  the  holy  altar,  and  there  he  found  us  hiding 
between  the  altar  and  the  (bishop's)  chair,  and  he  took 
us ;  yet  he  did  nothing  cruel  to  us,  for  God  had  certainly 
softened  his  heart  a  little  ;  he  said  nothing  wrathful  nor 
threatening,  feigning  timidity  in  his  face,  though  he 
was  armed  with  a  naked  sword  which  smoked  and 
dripped  blood  still  warm.  He  looked  at  the  bishop  and 
asked  him  tolerably  clearly  who  he  was.  As  soon  as 
he  knew,  he  asked,  '  Where  now  are  the  sacred  vessels 
of  the  Church  ? '  But  when  he  had  learned  concerning 
the  place,  he  led  the  bishop  out  of  the  holy  temple 


92  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

apart  from  all  the  disturbance  and  tumult,  and  us  also 
with  him,  like  lambs  following  their  shepherd.  When 
he  had  reached,  by  our  guidance,  the  chapel  where  the 
sacred  vessels  used  to  be  kept,  he  shut  us  up  in  it  and 
went  about  to  see  that  the  elders  of  the  barbarians 
should  come  together  as  quickly  as  possible ;  and  then 
he  began  to  tell  them  concerning  us.  We  learned 
that  his  name  was  Semnoes,  and  that  he  was  of  illus- 
trious birth ;  and  moved  by  his  speech,  or  rather,  as  I 
should  say,  because  God  brought  it  all  to  a  good  ending, 
our  enemies  began  to  be  well  disposed  towards  us.  On 
the  same  day  they  plundered  the  sacred  things,  and 
when  they  had  done,  the  weight  of  all  was  five  thou- 
sand pounds  ;  and  they  made  us  go  out  of  the  city, 
overwhelmed  with  vehement  grief,  to  say  nothing  of  our 
other  ills,  and  led  us  to  the  emir,  who  had  encamped 
in  the  old  cathedral  (San  Giovanni). 

"  He  had  us  shut  up  in  one  of  those  vaulted  cham- 
bers that  are  therein,  and  there  it  was  inevitable  that 
our  poor  bodies  should  be  afflicted  in  everyway;  for  the 
place  was  naturally  filled  With  evil  smells,  and  with 
worms  that  breed  and  abound  in  a  day,  as  well  as  with 
the  mice  that  were  always  there,  and  with  swarms  of  lice 
and  bugs,  and  literally  with  armies  of  fleas ;  and  when 
it  was  night,  we  were  overwhelmed  by  the  falling  dark- 
ness, and  the  house  was  filled  with  smoke  which 
chanced  to  be  made  outside,  and  choked  our  miserable 
breath  and  almost  entirely  hid  us  from  one  another's 


The  Saracens  93 

sight.  We  were  thrown  into  this  chasm  with  our  holy 
bishop  and  the  other  clerk  of  the  brethren,  for  the 
rest  were  all  butchered  when  the  city  was  taken ;  and 
there  we  spent  thirty  days,  because  the  enemy  required 
that  time  to  destroy  the  defences  of  Syracuse.  Through- 
out that  period  the  buildings  within  the  circuit  of  the 
walls  were  burned,  and  the  value  of  all  the  booty  taken 
was  so  great  that  the  reckoning  when  cast  up  was 
found  to  be  one  thousand  thousand  gold  pieces. 

"  Not  long  after  this  we  began  the  journey  to  Pa- 
lermo, which  we  accomplished  in  the  space  of  six  days, 
borne  on  beasts  bred  to  carry  burdens,  but  we  were 
conducted  by  rough  and  savage  Ethiopians.  At 
length,  much  vexed  by  the  heat  in  the  daytime  and  by 
the  nocturnal  chills,  and  not  having  ceased  to  travel  by 
day  and  night,  we  entered  the  extremely  famous  and 
populous  city  of  Palermo ;  and  as  we  went  into  the  city, 
the  people  came  out  to  meet  us.  They  thronged  out  in 
great  joy,  and  they  sang  songs  of  triumph,  and  as  they 
saw  the  victors  carrying  the  spoils  into  the  city  we  at 
length  saw  the  multitude  of  the  citizens  and  of  the 
strangers  who  had  assembled,  and  that  the  number  of 
the  citizens,  as  compared  with  all  accounts,  had  in  our 
opinion  not  been  overrated ;  for  you  would  have 
thought  that  the  whole  race  of  the  Saracens  had  come 
together  there,  from  the  rising  up  of  the  sun  even  to  its 
going  down,  from  the  north  and  from  the  sea,  accord- 
ing to  the  accustomed  speech  of  the  most  blessed  David. 


94 


The  Rulers  of  the  South 


Wherefore  the  people  being  crowded  together  in  such  a 
press  of  inhabitants,  began  to  build  and  inhabit  houses 
without  the  walls,  to  such  an  extent  that  they  really 
built  many  cities  round  the  original  one,  not  unequal 


CLOISTER   OF   SAN    FRANCESCO    DI    FAOLA,    SEEN    FROM    THE    REAR 


to  it,  if  one  choose,  either  for  attack  or  defence.  But 
since,  as  I  began  to  say,  this  most  evil  of  all  cities  pos- 
sessed a  Contarchus  —  that  is  the  name  of  the  office  — 
he  deemed  it  unworthy  of  his  fame  not  to  make  us  pass 


The  Saracens  95 

under  the  yoke.  And  not  only  does  he  promise  himself 
that  he  will  do  so,  he  even  threatens  to  bring  under  his 
power  peoples  that  live  far  away,  and  even  the  people 
of  the  imperial  city  (Constantinople).  This  being  then 
the  state  of  things,  we  were  brought  before  the  chief 
emir  after  the  fifth  day.  He  was  sitting  haughtily  on  a 
throne,  on  a  terrace,  much  pleased  with  himself  and  his 
tyrannical  power ;  and,  like  a  towel  hanging  in  the  midst, 
he  showed  himself  to  us  first  from  one  side  and  then 
from  the  other.  The  attendants  made  the  bishop 
stand  forth,  and  through  an  interpreter  the  emir  asked : 
1  Hast  thou  our  manner  of  praying  to  God  ? '  Our 
most  wise  superior  would  not  admit  that.  '  Why  in 
that  manner?'  asked  the  bishop;  '  since  I  am  the  high 
priest  of  Christ  and  the  leader  of  the  mysteries  of  the 
servants  of  Christ,  of  whom  the  prophets  and  the 
righteous  prophesied  of  old.'  '  They  are  not  prophets 
to  you,  in  truth,'  answered  the  emir,  '  but  only  in  name, 
since  by  them  you  would  not  be  led  away  to  your  false 
doctrines,  nor  turned  from  the  right  path.  For  why  do 
you  assail  our  prophet  with  blasphemies  ? '  '  We  do 
not  blaspheme  the  prophets  at  all,'  returned  the  bishop, 
'  seeing  that  we  have  learned  not  to  inveigh  against 
prophets,  but  to  speak  in  their  behalf  and  to  feel  proud 
of  them ;  but  we  do  not  know  that  one  who  is  revered 
among  you.'  Amazed  by  these  answers,  the  emir  at 
once  ordered  that  we  should  be  again  thrust  into  prison, 
and  being  led  away  we  walked  through  the  principal 


96  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

open  place  of  the  city,  in  the  sight  of  the  people ;  and 
many  Christians  followed  us  openly  mourning  our 
misery,  as  well  as  men  of  the  contrary  sect  (Mohamme- 
dan) who  were  impelled  by  curiosity  and  pressed  closely 
about  us  and  kept  asking  which  was  the  very  famous 
Sicilian  archbishop,  and  in  this  way  we  escaped  from 
the  people.  At  length  we  were  thrown  into  the  com- 
mon prison  ;  and  this  is  a  den  having  its  pavement 
fourteen  steps  below  ground,  and  it  has  only  a  little 
door  instead  of  a  window ;  here  the  darkness  is  com- 
plete, and  can  be  felt,  the  only  light  being  from  a  lamp, 
or  some  reflection  by  day,  and  it  is  impossible  ever  to 
see  the  light  of  dawn  in  this  dungeon,  nor  the  rays  of 
the  moon.  Our  bodies  were  distressed  by  the  heat,  for 
it  was  summer,  and  we  were  scorched  by  the  breath  of 
our  fellow-prisoners  ;  and  besides,  the  vermin  and  the 
lice,  and  hosts  of  fleas  and  other  little  insects,  make  a 
man  miserable  by  their  bites  ;  and  promiscuously  with  us 
there  were  confined  in  the  same  prison,  to  trade  (as  it 
were)  with  these  miseries,  Ethiopians,  Tarsians,  Jews, 
Lombards,  and  some  of  our  own  Christians,  from  differ- 
ent parts,  among  whom  was  also  the  most  holy  Bishop 
of  Malta,  chained  with  double  shackles.  Then  the  two 
bishops  embraced  one  another,  and  kissed  one  another 
with  the  holy  kiss,  and  wept  together  awhile  over  the 
things  that  had  happened  to  them ;  but  presently  they 
gave  thanks  to  God  for  it  all,  and  combated  their  grief 
with  arguments  drawn  from  our  philosophy.  While  we 


The  Saracens  97 

were  living  in  this  way,  the  abominable  day  of  the  sacrifice 
appointed  among  these  people  recurred ;  on  which  day 
they  boast  that  they  hold  in  memory  that  sacrifice 
which  Abraham  made  long  ago,  when  he  sacrificed  the 
ram  given  him  to  God  for  a  victim,  in  his  share  of  the 
covenant;  this,  out  of  ignorance,  they  call  the  Pasch, 
but  they  do  not  name  the  day  thus  from  the  fact,  for 
they  had  no  passing  over  from  Egypt  to  the  land  of 
promise,  according  to  the  ancient  naming  of  the  Pasch, 
nor  from  that  land  to  the  celestial  shore,  nor  from  death 
to  life,  as  the  Christian  faith  teaches  us  to  use  this  word ; 
but  from  life  unto  death  and  from  this  corporeal  de- 
struction, which  falls  under  sensation,  to  that  everlasting 
perdition,  and  to  that  fire  which  shall  have  no  end.  In 
the  celebration  of  this  day  —  strange  madness  —  they 
took  council  to  burn  the  archbishop  and  to  offer  the 
most  holy  Pontiff  of  Christ  as  a  victim  to  their  evil 
demons  ;  for  a  certain  man  of  those  who  were  over  the 
people,  having  a  mouth  that  breathed  like  an  open 
sepulchre,  said,  turning  to  those  who  stood  round  about, 
'  O  fellow-citizens,  let  us  keep  this  feast  of  the  Pasch  as 
joyfully  as  may  be,  and  make  it  famous  now,  if  ever,  by 
laying  hands  upon  the  bishop  of  the  Christians  for  our 
own  salvation,  for  so  I  am  sure  that  our  affairs  shall 
turn  out  fortunately  and  shall  obtain  even  a  better 
increase.'  So  he  spoke,  but  certain  old  men  with  wise 
gray  heads,  and  elders  honourably  clad  in  mantles, 
turned  to  the  people  and  condemned  the  thing  for  the 

VOL.   II  H 


98  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

following  reason.  They  said  that  these  things  were  not 
true,  and  that  they  considered  that  the  record  of  that 
day  was  made  sufficiently  honourable  by  the  signal 
privilege  of  having  accomplished  the  destruction  of  the 
city  of  Syracuse.  Thus,  God  being  willing,  was  the 
advice  of  the  evil  counsellor  against  the  archbishop 
set  at  naught  Now  from  that  day  to  this  we  have 
remained  captive,  in  many  sorrows,  daily  awaiting 
death  itself,  which  perpetually  hangs  over  us  prisoners. 
But  thou,  O  dear  and  venerable  head,  remember  always 
thy  Theodosius,  and  mayest  thou  render  our  God  kind 
and  propitious  that  He  may  calm  these  tempestuous  bil- 
lows, that  he  may  stay  them  and  check  them,  and  that 
he  may  turn  our  captivity,  as  the  flood  under  the  south 
wind,  according  to  the  word  of  the  Prophet  King  who 
was  of  the  kindred  of  Christ.  Amen." 

Here  ends  the  letter  of  Theodosius,  which  was  evi- 
dently composed  in  the  prison  he  describes.  It  is 
some  satisfaction  to  find  it  believed  among  historians 
that  he  himself  and  the  good  bishop  were  at  last 
ransomed.  The  account  bears  evidence  in  every  sen- 
tence of  having  been  written  by  one  who  had  both 
seen  and  suffered  the  terrible  things  he  describes.  It 
cannot  be  doubted  that  the  Mohammedans  acted  else- 
where with  a  cruelty  quite  as  atrocious ;  the  condition 
of  the  unfortunate  Christians  who  now  became  their 
slaves  is  more  easy  to  imagine  than  to  describe,  and 
one  might  not  unnaturally  think  of  the  Saracens  as 


The  Saracens  99 

utter  barbarians,  or  at  least  as  possessing  no  higher 
culture  than  that  of  their  Semitic  predecessors  in 
Sicily,  the  Carthaginians.  We  know  that  this  was  not 
the  case,  and  we  may  well  start  in  wonder  at  the  picture 
drawn  by  Theodosius.  But  we  might  as  reasonably 
call  Oliver  Cromwell  a  barbarian,  or  the  French  Hugue- 
nots iconoclasts  —  or,  for  that  matter,  Catherine  de' 
Medici.  There  is  only  one  form  of  passion  which 
seems  able  to  destroy  temporarily  every  good  instinct 
of  humanity,  and  that  is  mistaken  religious  zeal.  The 
conviction  that  the  enemy  is  predestined  to  eternal 
flames  easily  leads  to  the  instinctive  belief  that  he 
has  deserved  every  torment  in  his  earthly  body ;  and 
such  a  belief,  when  bound  up  with  such  a  conviction, 
and  stimulated  to  madness  by  the  sight  of  human 
blood,  can  make  men  worse  than  wild  beasts.  The 
barbarians  with  their  dripping  swords  who  terrified 
poor  Theodosius  were  those  same  grave  Mohammedans 
to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  so  much  true  science, 
for  the  preservation  and  transmission  of  so  many 
priceless  books,  and  for  so  many  things  of  beauty 
that  still  remain,  from  the  Taj  Mahal  to  the  Alhambra ; 
and  they  were  the  men  who  were  about  to  fill  Sicily 
with  a  civilization  in  many  ways  superior  to  that  older 
one  which  they  destroyed.  They  tore  Nicetas  piece- 
meal, and  trampled  upon  his  Christian  heart ;  but 
Theodoric  the  great  Goth  put  the  good  heathen 
Boethius  to  death  as  cruelly,  on  an  accusation  that 


ioo  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

was  palpably  false,  and  Everard  Digby,  who  has  been 
recently  proved  wholly  innocent  of  any  connection 
with  the  Gunpowder  Plot,  was  torn  to  pieces  alive 
by  the  hangman  under  James  the  First.  The  French 
are  a  most  civilized  people,  but  in  the  French  Revolu- 
tion educated  men  among  them  behaved  with  no  more 
show  of  humanity  than  the  Saracens  at  Syracuse,  and 
about  the  year  1900  men  who  can  read  and  write, 
and  who  vote  in  a  free  country,  have  burned  negroes 
alive.  No  nation  has  much  right  to  reproach  any 
other  for  cruelty  in  times  of  war  or  popular  excite- 
ment ;  it  is  only  in  peace  that  a  fair  judgment  may 
be  formed  of  the  tendencies  of  any  race,  and  then 
only  when  that  race  lives  under  some  form  of  repre- 
sentative government.  Countries  are  too  often  judged 
by  their  capital  cities,  and  nations  by  the  character  of 
their  sovereigns,  though  the  rulers  of  most  nations 
are  of  foreign  descent. 

In  connection  with  the  fall  of  Syracuse  I  take  the 
following  strange  story  from  the  annals  of  Georgius 
Cedrenus,  a  monk  of  the  eleventh  century,  as  a  speci- 
men of  the  inventive  powers  occasionally  displayed 
at  that  time,  even  in  works  that  have  some  historical 
value. 

While  the  Saracens,  whom  he  calls  the  Carthaginians, 
were  still  besieging  Syracuse  and  pillaging  the  sur- 
rounding country,  the  Emperor  Basil  sent  a  fleet  to 
Sicily  under  the  command  of  the  patrician,  Adrianus, 


The  Saracens  101 

'although  the  sailors  were  at  that  time  engaged  in 
building  a  temple '  —  a  singular  occupation  for  men- 
of-war's  men,  it  must  be  confessed.  Adrianus  put 
into  a  harbour  of  the  Peloponnesus  to  wait  for  a  fair 
wind,  and  while  he  was  wasting  time  there,  Syracuse 
was  taken.  He  learned  the  disaster  in  the  following 
manner.  '  There  is  a  place  in  the  Peloponnesus  called 
Helos,  on  account  of  the  thick  woods  amongst  which 
it  is  situated,  and  the  Roman  ships  were  moored 
near  the  spot.  One  night  some  shepherds  heard  the 
voices  of  the  devils  that  dwell  there,  talking  together, 
and  relating  that  Syracuse  had  been  taken  on  the  previ- 
ous day,  and  this  tale,  after  spreading  among  the  peo- 
ple, reached  Adrianus.  He  called  the  shepherds  before 
him  and  examined  them,  and  rinding  that  they  con- 
firmed the  story  he  had  heard,  in  order  to  ascertain 
the  truth  of  the  thing  with  his  own  ears  he  had  him- 
self led  to  the  spot  by  the  shepherds,  he  inquired  of 
the  devils  by  their  help,  and  he  heard  that  Syracuse 
was  already  taken.  Being  overcome  by  uneasiness  at 
this  warning,  he  sought  to  reassure  and  comfort  him- 
self with  the  belief  that  it  would  be  wrong  to  put 
faith  in  the  words  of  lying  Genii,  but  he  noted  the 
day  they  had  mentioned.  Ten  days  later,  certain 
persons  who  had  escaped  from  Syracuse  arrived  and 
announced  the  calamity.' 

This   curious   tale   is   found   in    the  first  volume  of 
Caruso's  valuable  work.      Another   story,  taken   from 


IO2  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

the  same  author  and  much  more  worthy  of  credence, 
gives  a  very  good  idea  of  the  wars  that  were  waged  at 
the  same  time  on  the  mainland,  between  the  forces 
of  the  new  Prankish  Empire,  the  Mohammedans,  and 
the  Byzantines. 

While  the  Saracens  were  fighting  their  way  through 
Sicily,  other  Mohammedans  had  extended  their  in- 
cursions far  into  the  interior  of  Italy  and  along  the 
eastern  coast,  and  had  overrun  a  great  part  of  the 
Lombard  Duchy  in  the  south,  making  their  head- 
quarters at  Bari ;  whereupon  the  Emperor  Basil 
appealed  to  the  Pope  and  to  Lewis  the  Second, 
called  '  King  of  France '  by  the  monk's  chronicle, 
instead  of  King  of  the  Franks.  Their  joint  armies 
overcame  the  Saracen  force  in  Italy,  and  they  recap- 
tured Bari  and  took  the  Mohammedan  chief  captive. 
He  is  called  the  Soldanus,  the  Sultan,  which  is  mani- 
festly a  mistake,  but  his  story  is  worth  telling  for  the 
light  it  throws  on  the  times. 

This  soldanus,  then,  was  carried  away  a  prisoner 
to  Capua  by  Lewis  the  Second,  and  during  two  years 
he  was  never  seen  to  laugh.  Therefore  the  king 
promised  a  present  of  gold  to  any  one  who  could 
make  the  soldanus  laugh  outright.  Now  when  a  cer- 
tain man  came  and  told  the  king  that  he  had  seen 
the  soldanus  laughing,  and  brought  a  witness,  the 
king  called  the  soldanus  to  him  and  asked  him  the 
reason  of  the  change.  Then  said  the  soldanus :  '  I 


The  Saracens 


103 


was  looking  at  a  cart  and  at  its  wheels,  how  some  parts 
of  them  turned  downwards  and   others   up ;    and  per- 


CHAPEI.    IN    THE   GARDEN    OF   SAN    FRANCESCO    1)1    PAOLA 

ceiving   that   this   was    an    image   of    man's    changing 
and  inconstant  fortunes,  I  laughed ;    and  when  I  con- 


IO4  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

sider  how  miserable  is  everything  wherein  we  boast, 
then  also  I  judge  it  possible  that  as  I,  who  was  the 
highest,  am  become  the  lowest,  so  also  from  this  depth 
I  may  be  lifted  again  to  the  summit  where  I  stood.' 
When  the  king  heard  this  he  considered  his  own 
state  also,  and  he  thought  of  the  soldanus,  and  of 
the  command  he  had  held,  and  of  his  old  age  and 
experience  of  good  and  bad  fortunes ;  and  judging 
him  to  be  wise,  he  allowed  the  soldanus  from  that  time 
freely  to  converse  with  him  and  to  come  and  go. 

But  the  soldanus  was  an  astute  man  and  crafty,  and 
he  laid  a  trap  for  the  king,  by  which  he  drove  him 
from  Capua  and  prepared  his  own  return  to  his  people. 
The  two  Italian  cities  of  Capua  and  Benevento  had  not 
been  long  subject  to  the  king,  and  the  soldanus  knew 
that  they  would  not  remain  constantly  faithful,  but  were 
dreaming  of  liberty ;  nor  was  he  ignorant  that  the  king 
was  making  every  effort  to  retain  possession  of  them. 
He  therefore  addressed  the  king,  and  said  :  '  I  see  that 
you  are  deeply  concerned  in  considering  how  you  may 
keep  these  two  cities  in  your  power.  I  will  give  you 
advice  in  this  matter.  Be  sure  that  you  cannot  keep  a 
firm  hold  of  these  unless  you  remove  their  chief  men  to 
France.  For  it  is  natural  that  men  who  are  in  service 
against  their  will  should  wish  for  freedom,  and  that 
they  should  seize  a  favourable  opportunity  to  rise  and 
obtain  what  they  desire.'  The  king  was  pleased  with 
this  speech ;  he  thought  the  advice  good,  and  he  deter- 


The  Saracens  105 

mined  to  act  upon  it.  Therefore  shackles  of  bronze  and 
chains  were  made  ready  secretly,  as  if  for  some  other 
purpose.  But  the  soldanus,  having  thus  deluded  the 
king,  went  to  the  princes  of  the  people,  for  he  had 
acquired  familiarity  with  them  in  habitual  intercourse, 
and  he  told  them  that  he  had  a  secret  which  he  would 
show  them,  but  that  he  feared  lest  if  they  betrayed  it 
they  should  cause  the  destruction  of  their  informer,  and 
bring  themselves  into  danger.  They  promised  silence 
with  an  oath,  and  he  told  them  that  the  king  had  deter- 
mined to  send  them  all  to  France  in  iron  bonds,  because 
he  saw  that  he  could  not  otherwise  keep  his  power  over 
the  cities.  They  were  in  doubt,  and  could  not  quite 
believe  his  words,  desiring  further  proof  of  what  he 
said ;  so  he  took  one  of  them  with  him  to  the  smith's 
and  bade  him  ask  of  them  why  they  were  working  so 
industriously.  Having  learned  that  they  were  making 
chains  and  shackles,  he  went  back  to  his  companions  and 
convinced  these  that  the  soldanus  had  spoken  the  truth, 
out  of  good  will  to  them  and  to  the  advantage  of  their 
country.  Thereupon  the  princes  of  those  cities,  being 
persuaded  of  the  fact,  considered  how  they  might  be 
avenged  upon  the  king;  and  one  day,  when  he  went 
out  to  hunt,  they  shut  the  gates,  and  when  he  returned 
they  drove  him  away.  So  when  he  found  himself  shut 
out  of  the  cities,  and  unable  to  effect  anything  by  his 
presence,  he  returned  to  France.  But  the  soldanus  went 
to  the  princes,  and  desired  as  the  price  of  the  informa- 


io6  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

tion  he  had  given  that  he  might  be  free  and  return  to 
his  country ;  and  being  thus  rewarded  for  the  good  he 
had  done  unto  them,  he  returned  to  Carthage,  regained 
his  former  command,  undertook  a  great  expedition 
against  Capua  and  Benevento,  and  besieged  those  cities 
with  all  his  strength,  surrounding  them  with  a  great 
encampment. 

Then  the  townspeople,  being  hard  pressed  by  the 
siege,  sent  ambassadors  to  the  king,  imploring  his  help, 
but  he  sent  them  away  scornfully,  answering  that  their 
destruction  would  be  a  joy  to  him.  On  the  return  of 
the  ambassadors,  after  this  failure,  the  people,  not 
knowing  whither  to  turn,  and  being  driven  to  great 
straits  in  their  defence,  sent  an  ambassador  to  Basil, 
the  emperor  of  the  Romans.  And  he  sent  back  the 
ambassador  at  once,  to  bid  his  people  be  of  good  heart, 
and  to  announce  the  present  coming  of  abundant  aid. 
But  the  ambassador  was  taken  by  the  enemy  on  his 
return,  and  the  soldanus,  before  whom  he  was  brought, 
said  to  him  :  '  Thou  shalt  have  a  choice ;  choose  there- 
fore the  better  part.  If  thou  dost  wish  to  be  safe,  and 
to  receive  very  splendid  gifts,  say  to  those  who  sent 
thee,  and  in  the  presence  of  them  all,  that  the  Roman 
emperor  has  refused  to  help  them ;  but  if  thou  dost 
proclaim  the  truth,  thou  shalt  perish  instantly.'  The 
ambassador  promised  to  do  what  the  emir  had  com- 
manded him,  and  when  they  were  at  an  arrow's  flight 
from  the  walls,  he  commanded  that  the  chief  men  of 


The  Saracens  107 

the  city  should  come  forth.  When  they  were  come, 
he  spoke  to  them  these  words :  '  Ye  fathers,  howbeit 
certain  death  is  hanging  over  me,  and  the  sword  is  at 
my  throat,  I  shall  not  hide  the  truth  from  you,  and  I 
beseech  you  to  show  kindness  to  my  wife  and  my 
children.  I,  my  lords,  though  I  am  now  in  the  hands 
of  our  enemies,  have  fulfilled  my  embassy,  and  pres- 
ently help  will  be  surely  sent  you  by  the  Roman 
emperor.  Therefore  stand  fast.  For  he  cometh  who 
shall  deliver  you,  though  not  me.'  When  he  had  said 
this,  the  ministers  of  the  soldanus  instantly  cut  him 
into  very  small  pieces  with  their  swords.  But  the 
soldanus  feared  the  army  of  the  emperor,  now  that  he 
was  sure  that  it  would  be  sent,  and  raised  the  siege  and 
went  home.  And  after  that,  there  was  alliance  and 
faith  between  the  cities  of  Capua  and  Benevento. 

Such  is  the  story  of  the  Lombard  Duchy,  told  by 
Georgius  Cedrenus,  and  romantic  as  it  is,  and  closely 
as  it  recalls  the  embassy  of  Regulus  to  the  Carthaginians, 
we  may  safely  accept  it  as  authentic  in  the  main.  To 
complete  the  picture,  it  must  be  remembered  that  Italy 
and  the  south  were  now  overrun  in  all  directions  by 
hosts  of  Moslems,  that  the  sea  was  at  their  mercy,  and 
that  they  had  stained  the  waters  of  the  Mediterranean 
with  Christian  blood  from  Gibraltar  to  the  Bosphorus, 
and  from  the  Adriatic  to  the  mouth  of  the  Nile.  We 
cannot  but  see  them  in  our  imagination  as  dark-skinned 
barbarians,  black-browed,  and  turbaned  to  the  eyes,  lean 


io8  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

and  fierce,  bringing  with  them  the  strength  and  endurance 
which  the  desert  breeds,  and  clothing  themselves  in  the 
purple  and  gold  of  a  vanquished  civilization.  We  can- 
not but  think  of  them  as  more  like  Huns  than  Vandals, 
as  more  like  devils  than  Huns.  Yet  this  was  the  age 
of  Harun  al  Rashid,  whose  court  in  Bagdad  delighted 
in  every  luxury  while  exploring  the  secrets  of  every 
science ;  and  if  Harun  eight  times  invaded  the  Byzan- 
tine Empire,  it  may  be  remembered  that  it  had  become 
the  plaything  of  the  evil  Empress  Irene  whose  deeds 
have  left  upon  her  the  marks  of  mankind's  execration, 
while  Harun  will  forever  and  not  undeservedly  bear 
the  surname  of  the  Just.  Had  the  Mohammedan  Em- 
pire been  united  under  such  a  man,  controlled  by  such 
a  heart,  and  directed  by  such  an  intelligence,  and  had 
a  worthy  successor  taken  the  place  of  Harun  on  the 
throne  of  the  Abbassides,  the  power  of  the  Moslems 
might  have  been  consolidated  into  a  despotism  of  the 
world,  at  a  time  when  Christianity  was  divided  against 
itself.  But  while  the  Empire  of  Constantinople  was  as 
yet  separated  from  its  final  destruction  by  an  interval 
of  six  hundred  years,  the  newly  risen  domination  of  the 
Mohammedans  was  already  broken  up  into  small  powers, 
of  which  the  sultans  and  emirs  did  not  hesitate  to  make 
war  upon  each  other  almost  as  readily  as  upon  the 
Christians.  The  khalifs  ruled  indeed  in  Bagdad,  and 
Harun  had  destroyed  a  Byzantine  army  each  time 
that  a  Byzantine  ruler  had  refused  to  pay  him  trib- 


The  Saracens  109 

ute ;  but  the  khalifate  had  lost  its  power  in  the 
West,  the  house  of  Aghlab  and  the  Fatimites  had 
become  independent  rulers  in  Africa,  and  the  Emir  of 
Sicily  soon  made  himself  as  independent  as  they.  Still 
farther  west  the  Mohammedans  of  Spain  had  founded 
a  kingdom  which  was  to  defy  the  armies  of  Christianity 
even  longer  than  Constantinople  was  destined  to  with- 
stand the  attacks  of  the  Moslems.  But  the  chiefs  of 
these  divided  kingdoms,  though  sometimes  highly  gifted 
and  acquainted  with  the  advantages  of  civilization,  were 
in  reality  little  more  than  robbers  of  tremendous  power ; 
depredation  and  pillage  were  the  business  of  their  lives, 
and  religion  was  a  sufficient  excuse  for  both.  Civiliza- 
tion was  but  an  amusement  fit  for  short  intervals  of 
unwelcome  peace.  It  was  their  nature  to  delight  in  the 
discoveries  of  astronomy,  the  investigations  of  medicine, 
and  in  the  study  of  the  Aristotelian  philosophy,  and  most 
of  the  sciences  are  indebted  in  some  measure  to  their 
acuteness  and  spasmodic  industry  ;  but  to  all  such  pleas- 
ures, to  intellectual  pastimes  of  the  noblest  kind,  as  well 
as  to  the  refinements  of  a  sensuous  existence  which 
happily  is  without  parallel  in  modern  times  —  to  these 
things  the  true  Saracen  preferred  the  din  of  ringing 
blows  exchanged  in  battle,  the  hideous  carnage  of  the 
hard-won  field,  the  heaps  of  Christian  slain,  and  the 
confusion  of  victories  that  spoiled  the  world  in  a  day. 

They  had   won   the    East,  they  had  conquered   the 
West,    the    central   basin   of    the    Mediterranean    was 


no 


The  Rulers  of  the  South 


theirs,  and  the  time  came  when  they  aspired  to  seize 
Rome  itself.  Collecting  the  squadrons  of  their  pirate 
vessels  into  a  fleet  manned  by  a  host  of  fighters  who 
had  survived  a  hundred  deaths,  they  appeared  at  the 


CLOISTER   AND    COURT   OF    SAN    FRANCESCO    DI    PAOLA 

mouth  of  the  Tiber,  and  ate  up  the  land  like  locusts. 
Nevertheless,  the  worn-out  and  tottering  walls  of  Rome 
sufficed  to  discourage  an  army  that  was  more  warlike 
than  military,  and  was  little  accustomed  to  the  orderly 


The  Saracens  1 1 1 

operations  of  a  siege.  They  plundered  the  basilicas  of 
Saint  Peter  on  the  one  side  and  of  Saint  Paul  on  the 
other,  but  they  made  no  attempt  to  enter  Rome,  and 
presently  retired  to  their  congenial  south,  bearing  with 
them  the  spoils  of  the  most  magnificent  temples  in 
Christendom.  They  might  have  taken  Rome  with  ease, 
and  could  have  established  the  Mohammedan  dominion 
amid  the  ashes  of  the  Roman  Empire,  but  they  neglected 
an  opportunity  which  they  had  failed  to  estimate  at  its 
true  value ;  and  when  another  Moslem  host  came 
against  Rome  a  few  years  afterwards,  in  849,  the 
energy  of  Pope  Leo  the  Fourth  had  built  up  the  ruined 
defences,  and  not  only  were  the  walls  standing  through- 
out their  entire  circuit,  but  they  were  also  protected  at 
the  most  important  points  by  fifteen  great  towers,  one 
of  which,  still  unshaken,  was  occupied  by  Leo  the 
Thirteenth  as  a  summer  residence  one  thousand  and 
fifty  years  later.  To  complete  the  defence,  the  city 
was  provided  with  new  gates  made  of  the  most  massive 
timber.  Nor  was  this  all.  The  wise  and  untiring  pon- 
tiff had  formed  valuable  alliances  with  the  states  of 
Naples,  Gaeta,  and  Amalfi,  and  the  pirate  squadrons  of 
the  Moslems  were  opposed  before  the  port  of  Ostia  by 
a  well-ordered  fleet.  They  had  already  been  repulsed 
with  loss  when  a  storm  arose,  such  as  no  man  of  those 
times  could  remember,  and  the  ships  of  the  invaders 
were  driven  to  destruction  upon  the  dangerous  lee  shore. 
The  rocks  and  islands  with  which  Gibbon  adorned  the 


H2  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

coast  at  that  point  had  no  existence  except  in  his 
imagination,  or  in  some  source  of  information  other 
than  those  he  names ;  but  in  their  stead  there  exists  a 
real  danger  quite  as  terrible  to  mariners.  The  long 
low  shore  of  the  Roman  Campagna  is  accompanied 
from  end  to  end,  at  a  cable's  length  or  less,  by  a  bar, 
over  which  there  is  less  than  a  fathom  of  water  in  calms, 
and  upon  which,  in  southwesterly  gales,  the  surf  breaks 
with  enormous  force ;  and  therein  those  '  sons  of  Satan,' 
as  Anastasius  the  Librarian  calls  the  Moslems,  utterly 
perished,  both  themselves  and  their  vessels. 

This  was  the  last  attempt  made  by  them  to  extend 
their  power  northwards,  and  when  the  Saracens  at 
length  entered  Rome  as  conquerors,  they  came  as  the 
soldiers  of  a  Norman  ruler,  to  establish  the  power  of 
a  pope. 

Though  it  is  true  that  the  Greek  power  fell  in 
Sicily  when  the  Mohammedans  took  Castrogiovanni, 
the  most  important  date  which  occurs  for  a  long 
time  is  that  of  the  destruction  of  Syracuse  in  878. 
That  city  had  been  the  centre  and  fountain  head 
of  Sicilian  life  during  more  than  fourteen  hundred 
years;  the  great  struggles  in  which  the  fate  of  the 
island  was  concerned  had  almost  all  been  fought  for 
the  possession  of  its  chief  jewel  and  treasure.  The 
Moslems  took  it,  crushed  it,  and  threw  away  its 
fragments  as  though  it  had  been  a  worthless  thing 
to  them,  which  might  easily  have  been  of  value  to 


The  Saracens  113 

their  enemies.  When  the  emir  marched  westwards 
with  his  train  of  captives,  his  caravan  of  plunder,  and 
his  load  of  gold,  he  left  behind  him  a  heap  of  smok- 
ing ruins,  among  which  lay  the  unburied  corpses  of 
a  murdered  population.  Never  again  should  the  fair 
walls  of  a  great  city  mirror  themselves  in  the  still 
waters  of  the  wonderful  harbour;  never  more  should 
Christian  maidens  come  down  with  their  earthen  jars 
to  take  the  cool  water  from  Arethusa's  spring ;  not 
again  should  the  walls  below  Achradina  reecho  the 
blows  of  the  shipwright's  axe  and  hammer,  or  the  rasp- 
ing of  the  busy  saw ;  nor,  on  the  brink  of  the  deep 
quarry,  wherein  handsome  Athenians  had  died  of 
hunger  and  thirst  and  sickness,  should  the  holy  monks 
chaunt  matins  and  evensong  in  the  cloisters  of  Saint 
John.  Men  should  not  go  out  from  the  city,  so  long 
as  history  was  to  last,  to  cut  the  great  papyrus  at 
the  roots  and  bring  it  home  to  make  books  for  the 
wise  man's  pen.  No  living  thing  was  left  amid  the 
universal  death,  and  there  was  to  be  no  possible  re- 
newal of  life  thereafter.  The  Mohammedan  had  made 
his  home  far  to  westward  in  the  Golden  Shell,  and 
he  meant  not  to  leave  behind  him  any  good  place 
wherein  his  enemy  might  take  refuge.  He  returned 
indeed  not  many  years  afterwards  and  brought  ships 
into  the  harbour  of  Syracuse  and  built  up  the  walls 
of  Ortygia,  and  the  sea  wall  of  Achradina  ;  but  it  was 
not  that  the  city  he  had  built  might  live  again,  it  was 


The  Rulers  of  the  South 


rather  because  no  power  he  possessed  could  destroy 
the  safe  port  which  nature  had  made,  and  he  found 
himself  obliged  to  prevent  others  from  taking  that 
which  he  would  not  use  himself.  His  heart  was  in 
the  western  city,  and  he  loved  it  and 
made  it  his  own,  and  beautified  it  with 
all  the  skill  he  could  command. 

Thenceforward  Palermo  became  what 
Syracuse  had  been,  the  centre  of  the 
island's  history  and  the  chief  goal  of 
each  succeeding  invader.  Syracuse 
lived  again,  and  lives  to-day,  a  military 

stronghold,  a  naval  station,  a  commer- 

• 

cial  town ;  but  its  life  as  a  source  of 
power  and  as  a  fountain  of  indi- 
viduality was  arrested  forever  on 
the  fatal  day.  Much  of  it  that 
was  beautiful  fell  to  the  base  uses 
of  commerce,  and  the  money- 
changer's booth  was  set  up  in 
the  ruined  corner  of  the  match- 
less Greek  temple;  where  Agath- 
ocles  had  feasted  in  tents  of 
fine  linen  and  purple  silk  rose 
the  rough  defences  of  a  castle 
that  was  already  mediaeval,  that  was  not  a  glory  but 
a  menace,  a  thing  not  of  beauty  but  of  fear.  On  the 
height  the  great  wall  of  Dionysius  still  stood  in  part, 


STATUE   OF   A   BISHOP, 
OUTSIDE    THE     CATHE- 
DRAL,  PALERMO 


The  Saracens  115 

because  it  would  have  taken  human  hands  a  year  to 
destroy  what  human  hands  had  built  in  twenty  days ; 
and  the  indestructible  fortress  of  Euryalus  still  amazes 
the  traveller  with  its  labyrinth  of  well-hewn  passages, 
its  perfectly  designed  and  marvellously  preserved  em- 
brasures, and  its  ramparts  of  solid  rock.  But  the  five 
cities  upon  which  Marcellus  looked  down  with  tearful 
eyes  have  sunk  out  of  sight,  never  to  rise  again,  and 
a  small  Italian  town,  crowded  together  and  irregularly 
cut  by  quiet  little  streets,  covers  the  island,  and  extends 
over  a  few  hundred  yards  of  the  opposite  peninsula. 
That  is  all  there  is  left  of  her  that  rivalled  Athens 
and  Alexandria,  and  that  once  far  outdid  Rome  in 
extent,  in  wealth,  and  in  beauty. 

No  such  melancholy  reflections  assail  the  traveller 
who  ascends  the  heights  of  Monreale  and  pauses, 
where  the  road  sweeps  up  the  last  turn,  to  look  back 
upon  the  distant  splendour  of  Palermo.  The  scene  is 
indeed  full  of  associations  that  bring  back  the  past, 
and  evoke  the  grave  and  terrible  memories  of  an  elder 
time.  But  that  past  is  not  dead  beneath  a  funeral 
pall  of  ruin  through  which  the  eye  guesses  only  at 
the  outline  of  the  fallen  limbs.  It  is  alive  still,  clothed 
in  royal  robes  of  beauty,  and  calmly  resting  in  a  dig- 
nified repose.  From  the  height  a  keen-eyed  man  can 
descry  the  lofty  fortress  by  the  Porta  Nuova,  wherein 
Roger  the  Norman  held  his  court,  as  the  Saracen 
emirs  had  held  theirs  before  him ;  and  the  vast  cathe- 


n6  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

dral  that  holds  the  tombs  of  emperors  and  kings; 
the  bastions  of  the  great  walls  are  gone,  but  in  their 
stead  there  are  the  graceful  outlines  of  a  hundred 
churches  against  the  broad  sea  beyond,  soft  against 
the  softer  sky.  Between  the  city  and  the  hill  on 
which  the  beholder  stands,  and  round  by  his  right 
and  up  the  valley,  the  Golden  Shell  is  bright  with 
flower  and  yellow  fruit,  and  rich  with  the  deep  foliage 
of  the  lemon  and  the  orange ;  here  and  there,  among 
the  taller  cypresses  and  spreading  pines,  the  white 
walls  of  a  half-shaded  villa  speak  of  that  cool  retire- 
ment and  peace  which  every  Italian  loves,  and  as  the 
glow  of  evening  fades,  the  sweet  and  melancholy  note 
of  distant  bells  is  borne  up  on  the  scented  air. 

Palermo  is  not  dead,  like  Syracuse :  its  ruins  do  not 
stretch  far  and  wide  beyond  its  shrunk  walls,  like  those 
of  Girgenti,  cropping  up  in  vineyards  and  olive  groves 
and  in  scattered  farmhouses,  each  a  mile  from  the 
other ;  it  is  there  still,  as  it  was  there  a  thousand  years 
ago,  in  the  third  century  of  the  Hejira,  when  Ibn 
Haukal  came  thither  about  a  hundred  years  after  the 
captivity  of  Theodosius,  the  monk. 

This  Ibn  Haukal  was  a  merchant  of  Bagdad,  who 
left  that  city  in  the  year  943,  and  travelled  through 
many  Mohammedan  countries,  during  more  than  thirty 
years.  At  that  time,  the  first  great  Mussulman  Empire 
had  begun  to  fall  to  pieces,  from  lack  of  uniform 
organization,  while  Mohammedan  energy  was  still  as 


LA   PICCOLA  CUBA 
A  Moorish  Summer-house  near  Palermo 


ii6  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

drai  that  holds  the  tombs  of  emperors  and  kings; 
the  bastions  of  the  great  walls  are  gone,  but  in  their 
there  are  the  graceful  outlines  of  a  hundred 
churches  against  the  broad  sea  beyond,  soft  against 
the  softer  sky.  Between  the  city  and  the  hill  on 
which  the  beholder  stands,  and  round  by  his  right 
and  up  the  valley,  the  Golden  Shell  is  bright  with 
flower  and  yellow  fruit,  and  rich  with  the  deep  foliage 
of  the  lemon  and  the  orange ;  here  and  there,  among 
the  taller  cypresses  and  spreading  pines,  the  white 
walls  of  a  h  1  villa  speak  of  that  cool  retire- 

ment and  peace  which  every%  Italian  loves,  and  as  the 
glow  of  evening  fades,  the  sweet  and  melancholy  note 
of  distant  bells  is  borne  up  on  the  scented  air. 

Palermo  is  not  dead,  like  Syracuse:  its  ruins  do  not 
stretch  far  and  wide  beyond  its  shrunk  walls,  like  those 
of  Girgenti,  cropping  up  in  vineyards  and  olive  groves 
and  in  scattered  farmhouses,  each  a  mile  from  the 
other ;  it  is  there  still,  as  it  was  there  a  thousand  years 
ago,  in  the  third  century  of  the  Hejira,  when  Ibn 
Haukal  came  thither  about  a  hundred  years  after  the 
captivity  of  Theodosius,  the  monk. 

This  Ibn  Haukal  was  a  merchant  of   Bagdad,  who 

left  that   city  in   the  year  943,  and  travelled  through 

many  Mohammedan  .countries,  during  more  than  thirty 

-years.    At  that  time,  the  first  great  Mussulman  Empire 

had   begun   to  fall   to   pieces,    from    lack    of   uniform 

lization,  while   Mohammedan  energy  was  still   as 
AQUO  AJOOOIT  AJ 

-uan  stuod-ismmuQ  rfzhooM  A 


The  Saracens  1 1 7 

active  as  ever,  and  the  Saracens  in  Sicily  fought  to 
become  independent  of  the  African  domination,  under 
which  they  had  got  possession  of  the  island  ;  but  the 
turbulent  Sicilians  had  long  been  fighting  with  each 
other,  and  the  rivalry  of  the  principal  cities  had  led 
to  endless  bloodshed ;  and  it  was  not  until  Palermo 
and  Girgenti  made  up  their  differences,  and  united  to 
make  common  cause  against  the  African  emir,  that 
the  latter  conceded  to  the  island  the  freedom  it  desired, 
retaining  a  more  or  less  empty  suzerainty  over  it.  Soon 
after  this  event  Ibn  Haukal  visited  Palermo.  He  came 
on  the  morrow  of  a  great  struggle,  before  all  the  dam- 
age done  by  the  civil  war  had  been  repaired,  when  the 
people  were  still  suffering  from  past  evils,  and  when 
the  aristocracy,  which  had  been  chiefly  responsible 
for  the  internal  troubles  of  Sicily,  still  kept  aloof  from 
the  people,  in  scornful  isolation ;  for  of  all  races,  the 
Arabs  were  always  the  most  aristocratic.  He  describes 
a  city  surrounded  by  most  formidable  walls,  around 
which  were  built  four  suburbs,  each  of  which  had  a 
strongly  individual  character  that  distinguished  it  from 
the  others  ;  and  the  walled  portion  occupied  what  is  the 
middle  of  Palermo  to-day,  and  was  called  the  Kasr, 
the  fort,  and  Sicilians  still  call  the  main  street  the 
'Cassaro,'  though  it  was  named  the  'Toledo,'  by  one 
of  the  Spanish  viceroys,  and  has  of  course  been  officially 
christened  '  Corso  Vittorio  Emmanuele,'  since  the 
annexation  of  Sicily.  But  it  is  safe  to  say  that  its  old 


n8  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

name  will  remain  in  common  use,  no  matter  how  often 
the  island  changes  hands.  The  Saracen's  seal  is  upon 
it,  and  the  impression  is  indelible. 

In  the  days  of  the  Bagdad  merchant  there  was  '  a 
great  Friday  mosque '  in  this  quarter  '  which  was  form- 
erly a  church  of  the  Christians,'  which  had  been  first 
built  by  Saint  Gregory,  and  stood  on  the  site  of  the  Nor- 
man cathedral :  and  Ibn  Haukal  was  told  that  it  con- 
tained the  body  of  Aristotle,  who  had  been  held  in  the 
highest  veneration  by  the  Christians,  and  was  always 
ready  to  answer  their  prayers  for  rain,  for  recovery 
from  sickness,  and  for  every  ill  that  causes  man  to  offer 
prayers  to  Allah,  whose  name  be  praised.  The  body, 
it  was  said,  was  in  a  coffin  suspended  between  heaven 
and  earth,  and  Ibn  Haukal  says  that  he  saw  a  large 
chest  which  might  perhaps  have  contained  it. 

The  Kasr  was  the  abode  of  merchants ;  the  great 
suburb,  called  the  Khalessah,  now  the  Kalsa,  or  Gausa, 
contained  the  sultan's  palace,  and  the  habitations  of  his 
courtiers ;  there  were  also  baths  there,  a  mosque  of 
average  dimensions,  the  sultan's  prison — he  appears 
to  have  kept  one  for  his  own  purposes  —  the  arsenal, 
and  the  government  offices.  The  Khalessah  had  walls 
of  its  own,  and  it  lay  between  the  Kasr  and  the  sea, 
to  the  east  of  the  present  harbour.  It  is  not  easy  to 
define  the  other  ancient  quarters,  owing  to  the  great 
changes  in  the  topography  of  Palermo  caused  by  the 
gradual  filling  of  the  two  inlets  that  once  extended  far 


The  Saracens  119 

into  the  city,  divided  by  a  tongue  of  land  of  which  the 
extremity  still  projects  into  the  modern  harbour.  Ibn 
Haukal  tells  us,  however,  that  the  great  markets,  and 
the  shops  of  the  oil  sellers,  were  all  situated  southeast  of 
the  Kasr,  between  the  Saracen  Norman  castle  at  Porta 
Nuova  and  the  mosque  of  Ibn  Saklab  which  stood  in 
the  place  that  was  called,  until  recently,  Piazza  della  Mos- 
chitta.  Here,  also,  and  outside  the  walls,  were  the  stalls 
of  the  money-changers,  and  the  shops  of  the  drug  sellers, 
tailors,  armourers,  and  braziers.  The  corn  market  was 
also  beyond  the  circuit  of  the  walls.  The  merchant  of 
Bagdad  observed  that  there  were  a  hundred  and  fifty 
butchers'  shops  in  the  city,  and  on  visiting  the  butchers' 
mosque,  —  for  they  had  one  of  their  own,  —  he  calcu- 
lated that  more  than  seven  thousand  persons  connected 
with  the  trade  were  assembled  at  prayers,  for  he  counted 
thirty-six  ranks,  in  each  of  which  there  were  two  hun- 
dred people.  Those  who  have  been  present  in  the 
mosque  of  Saint  Sophia,  in  Constantinople,  during  the 
great  prayer  meetings  that  terminate  the  month  of 
Ramadhan,  will  doubtless  remember  the  extraordinarily 
precise  order  maintained  by  the  ranks  of  worshippers, 
which  makes  it  an  easy  matter  to  calculate  their  num- 
bers. It  has  been  estimated,  by  those  who  have  com- 
mented the  merchant's  accounts  of  the  city,  that  the 
population  amounted  at  that  time  to  three  hundred 
'thousand  souls.  It  exceeds  that  figure  at  the  present 
time. 


I2O  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

Ibn  Haukal  was  much  struck  by  the  great  number 
of  mosques  he  saw  in  all  parts  of  the  city,  and  he 
observes  that  the  greater  part  of  them  were  '  standing 
with  their  roofs,  their  walls,  and  their  doors,  and  were 
actually  in  use ' ;  a  statement  which  shows  that  even 
a  thousand  years  ago  the  Mohammedans  were  ac- 
customed to  allow  their  old  mosques  to  fall  to  ruins 
when  new  ones  were  built,  just  as  they  continue  to 
do  in  our  own  times ;  but  he  adds  that  the  mosques 
of  Palermo  were  places  of  meeting  for  '  all  the  wise 
men  and  the  students  of  the  city,  who  gather  in  them 
to  exchange  and  increase  their  information.'  In  vivid 
contrast  with  these  resorts  of  the  learned,  were  the 
so-called  'rabats,'  built  by  the  water's  edge,  outside 
the  city,  and  which  were  the  quarters  of  the  wild 
militia  that  alternately  begged  and  fought  for  a  living, 
'a  band  composed  of  cutthroats  and  ruffians,  of  men 
who  know  no  law,  and  have  grown  old  in  a  disorderly 
life,  and  of  corrupt  youths  who  have  learned  to  pretend 
piety  in  order  to  extort  charity  from  the  faithful,  and  to 
insult  honest  women,  —  wretches  who  live  in  the  rabat 
because  they  are  so  vile  and  universally  despised  that 
they  could  find  no  refuge  elsewhere.'  The  commenta- 
tor on  this  unpleasant  picture  remarks  that  the  number 
of  these  irregular  fighters  was  large  at  the  time  of  Ibn 
Haukal's  visit,  because  the  new  government  of  the 
Kalibites  was  actively  pushing  the  war  of  extermination 
against  Christians.  The  passage  throws  some  light  on 


The  Saracens  121 

the  nature  of  the  atrocities  described  by  the  monk,  Theo- 
dosius,  and  on  the  composition  of  the  Mohammedan 
armies  in  those  times.  The  ruffians  seen  in  the  rabats 
by  Ibn  Haukal  were,  doubtless,  the  lineal  descendants 
of  those  who  had  sacked  Syracuse  a  hundred  years 
earlier. 

He  dwells  at  great  length  on  the  nine  gates  by 
which  the  city  was  entered,  but  of  most  of  which  it 
is  now  impossible  to  determine  the  situation.  The 
most  famous,  he  says,  was  the  sea  gate,  and  of  this 
one  we  know  that  it  was  somewhere  in  the  lower  part 
of  the  modern  Cassaro,  or  Toledo,  that  it  was  destroyed 
in  1564,  in  order  to  widen  and  straighten  that  thorough- 
fare, and  that  it  was  ornamented  with  long  Arabic 
inscriptions  in  the  Cufic  character  which  gave  rise 
to  much  controversy.  For  centuries  the  letters  were 
believed  to  be  Chaldean,  and  the  writing  was  inter- 
preted to  mean  that  the  tower  of  the  gate  was  built 
by  Sapho,  the  son  of  Eliphaz,  the  son  of  Esau,  the 
brother  of  Jacob,  the  son  of  Isaac,  the  son  of  Abraham. 
Consequently  it  was  believed  even  by  learned  men, 
that  Palermo  had  been  founded  by  the  great-great- 
grandson  of  Abraham,  a  supposition  which,  for  its 
absurdity,  quite  equals  the  story  of  the  veneration  of 
Aristotle's  body  by  the  Christians,  which  was  told  to 
Ibn  Haukal.  He,  however,  does  not  even  mention  the 
supposed  origin  of  the  gate  in  question,  but  merely 
calls  it  'the  most  famous.' 


122  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

He  tells  us,  further,  that  in  the  midst  of  the  city 
there  was  a  depression  almost  entirely  filled  with  papy- 
rus plants,  then  still  used  for  making  writing  paper,  and 
he  adds  that  he  does  not  know  of  any  papyrus  in  the 
world,  except  that  of  Sicily,  which  rivals  that  of  Egypt, 
and  that  the  greater  part  of  this  papyrus  is  twisted 
into  rope  for  ships  —  it  would  make  something  like 
our  Manila  rope  —  while  the  remainder  is  made  into 
paper  for  the  sultan,  and  only  in  quantities  just  suffi- 
cient for  his  use.  In  the  southwestern  part  of  the  city, 
and  within  the  modern  circuit,  but  outside  the  ancient 
walls,  there  is  still  a  Piazza  del  Papireto,  and  a  street 
of  the  same  name  leading  out  of  it.  The  square  is 
only  a  few  steps  from  the  southern  end  of  the  cathe- 
dral. It  is  known  that  until  1591  the  place  was  a 
swamp,  in  which  the  papyrus  was  still  growing  abun- 
dantly, and  in  that  year  it  was  drained  by  subterranean 
channels  and  filled  up,  because  it  was  a  cause  of  fever 
in  the  neighbourhood.  The  few  specimens  of  papyrus 
now  cultivated  in  Palermo  have  been  brought  from 
Syracuse.  Judging  from  the  words  of  Ibn  Haukal, 
the  plant  not  only  flourished  in  Egypt,  where  it  is  now 
extinct,  in  the  tenth  century,  but  in  other  parts  of  the 
world. 

He  enumerates  many  springs  of  good  water,  both 
in  the  city  and  in  the  neighbourhood,  but  presently 
contradicts  himself  flatly,  and  ends  his  description 
of  the  people  with  the  following  comments.  '  The 


The  Saracens  123 

greater  part  of  the  water  consumed  in  the  various 
quarters  of  the  city  is  dirty  and  unwholesome  rain 
water.  The  people  drink  this  stuff,  owing  to  the  lack 
of  sweet,  running  water,  and  because  of  their  own 
folly,  and  because  of  their  abuse  of  the  onion,  and 
their  evil  habit  of  eating  raw  onions  in  excess  ;  for 
there  is  not  a  person  among  them,  high  or  low,  who 
does  not  eat  them  in  his  house  daily,  both  in  the 
morning  and  at  evening.  This  is  what  has  ruined 
their  intelligence,  and  affected  their  brains,  and  de- 
graded their  senses,  and  distracted  their  faculties,  and 
crushed  their  spirits,  and  spoiled  their  complexions, 
and  so  altogether  changed  their  temperament,  that 
everything,  or  almost  everything,  appears  to  them 
quite  different  from  what  it  is.' 

The  onion  has  certainly  never  suffered  a  more 
sweeping  condemnation,  and  we  are  reminded  of  the 
exceeding  and  virulent  bad  temper  with  which  Hor- 
ace attacked  garlic  when  it  had  disagreed  with  him. 
What  Ibn  Haukal  says  about  the  degeneracy  of  the 
people  of  Palermo,  however,  must  have  been  founded 
on  fact,  and  the  fact  may  have  been  in  part  attribu- 
table to  bad  water ;  but  he  saw  a  population  only 
half  recovered  from  the  horrors  and  sufferings  of  civil 
war,  —  men  who  had  been  starved,  and  whose  parents 
had  starved,  and  who  were  still  haunted  by  dreams 
of  fear,  dulled  by  past  pain,  half  dazed  and  stupefied 
by  a  generation  of  suffering.  Palermo  is  one  of  the 


124  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

healthiest  towns  in  the  world  at  the  present  time,  and 
its  people  compare  favourably,  both  in  looks  and  intel- 
ligence, with  the  inhabitants  of  any  other  city  in 
Europe. 

The  Normans 

ABOUT  the  year  500  a  certain  rich  man  named 
Garganus  possessed  a  great  estate  in  the  land  where 
the  city  of  Manfredonia  was  afterwards  built ;  and 
a  high  hill  which  is  there,  and  which  looks  out  over 
the  sea,  was  called  by  his  name,  Mons  Garganus.  It 
chanced  one  day  that  one  of  the  steers  of  his  herd 
went  astray  and  could  not  be  brought  back ;  and 
when  Garganus  and  his  servants  found  it,  the  beast 
was  lying  before  the  mouth  of  a  cavern  on  the  sum- 
mit of  the  hill.  The  creature  could  not  be  induced  to 
move,  and  Garganus,  wearied  by  the  long  pursuit,  and 
in  an  ill  temper,  flung  his  hunting  javelin  at  the  steer's 
head.  To  the  amazement  and  terror  of  all  who  saw 
it,  the  weapon  left  the  steer  unhurt,  and  turning  back- 
wards, wounded  Garganus  himself. 

The  bishop  of  that  region,  having  been  consulted  as 
to  the  meaning  of  this  prodigy,  commanded  a  rigid 
fast  of  three  days,  and  at  the  end  of  that  time  he 
himself  was  favoured  by  a  vision  of  the  Archangel 
Michael,  who  appeared  to  him  clothed  in  a  scarlet 
cloak,  and  in  radiant  glory.  The  saint  announced 


The  Normans  125 

that  he  himself  was  the  author  of  the  miracle,  and 
he  ordered  that  henceforth  he  should  be  venerated 
in  the  cavern  before  which  the  steer  had  lain  down. 
In  obedience  to  the  supernatural  command,  a  basilica, 
dedicated  to  Saint  Michael,  was  soon  raised  upon  the 


SHRINE   OF   SAINT    MICHAEL,    AT   MONTE    SANT*    ANGELO 

spot;  the  scarlet  cloak,  which  he  had  left  behind  him 
as  a  proof  of  his  visit,  was  preserved  in  the  sanctuary, 
together  with  treasures  of  gold  and  silver ;  and  before 
long  pious  pilgrims  from  all  parts  of  Europe  visited 
the  shrine.  It  has  been  venerated  in  like  manner 


126  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

ever  since,  and  the  silver  lamps  that  burn  before  the 
dim  altar  within  the  cave  have  been  filled,  lighted, 
worn  out,  and  renewed  during  fourteen  hundred 
years. 

More  than  a  thousand  miles  from  Monte  Gargano, 
on  the  borders  of  Brittany  and  Neustria,  a  bold  rock 
juts  out  into  the  sea,  and  is  daily  cut  off  from  the 
mainland  by  the  flowing  tide.  In  the  beginning  of 
the  eighth  century,  the  Bishop  Aubert  was  visited  in 
a  dream  by  the  Archangel  Michael,  who  bade  him 
build  a  sanctuary  on  the  summit  of  the  rock.  By  a 
coincidence  more  familiar  in  legend  than  in  reality, 
Aubert  found  a  steer  lying  in  a  cavern  when  he  first 
visited  the  summit,  and  regarding  this  circumstance 
as  a  direct  instruction  from  the  archangel,  he  com- 
manded that  the  church  to  be  built  on  the  spot  should 
be  the  counterpart  of  the  sanctuary  of  Monte  Gar- 
gano, both  in  shape  and  size.  It  stands  to-day,  and 
has  been  a  place  of  pilgrimage  ever  since  its  founda- 
tion. The  existence  of  these  two  shrines  is  the  link 
between  Normandy  and  Italy,  and  all  the  early 
chroniclers  laid  stress  upon  the  affiliation  of  the  more 
recently  founded  one  to  its  predecessor. 

The  rise  and  spread  of  Mohammedanism  in  the  East 
had  not  deterred  devout  persons  from  visiting  the  holy 
places  in  the  eighth  and  ninth  centuries,  and  as  the  pil- 
grims who  came  from  Normandy  never  failed  to  visit 
Monte  Gargano  on  their  way  to  the  East,  or  on  their 


The  Normans  127 

return,  taking  back  with  them  to  their  own  shrine  in 
the  West  full  accounts  of  what  they  had  seen,  there  was 
a  much  more  lively  interchange  of  news  between  the 
two  places  than  might  be  imagined.  Delarc,  whom  I 
shall  follow  in  telling  the  story  of  the  Normans,  points 
out  that  the  two  shrines  were  pillaged,  the  one  by  Nor- 
man pirates,  the  other  by  Saracen  corsairs,  at  about  the 
same  period,  that  is  to  say,  during  the  greater  part  of 
the  ninth  century.  When  Charles  the  Simple  had  in- 
vested Rollo  with  the  sovereignty  of  Normandy,  —  for 
the  very  good  reason  that  he  was  quite  unable  to  do 
otherwise,  —  the  new  duke  restored  tenfold  to  this 
shrine  of  the  archangel  the  treasures  which  his  coun- 
trymen had  taken  from  it ;  for  the  Normans  had 
adopted  Christianity  with  the  readiness  they  after- 
wards showed  in  changing  sides  when  any  advantage 
was  to  be  gained ;  and  having  suddenly  transformed 
themselves  into  a  nation  of  devout  Catholics,  speaking 
a  Latin  tongue,  they  also  imitated  their  Neustrian 
predecessors  in  making  pilgrimages  to  Southern  Italy 
and  the  East.  Being  cautious  people,  they  wore  coats 
of  mail  under  their  pilgrims'  robes,  and  though  they 
carried  the  stout  staff  of  the  palmer  in  their  hands, 
they  carried  at  their  belts  their  long  Norman  swords, 
merely  on  the  possibility  that  they  might  be  needed. 
They  regarded  the  Archangel  Michael  with  most  es- 
pecial veneration,  on  account  of  his  warlike  attributes, 
and  accepted  his  victory  over  Lucifer  as  a  satisfactory 


128  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

substitute  for  their  Scandinavian  hero's  destruction  of 
the  dragon. 

In  the  year  845,  while  the  Mohammedans  were  still 
fighting  for  the  possession  of  Italy,  and  were  attempt- 
ing to  get  possession  of  the  western  coast  of  the  main- 
land, the  warning  note  of  their  own  destruction  already 
sounded  in  the  west  of  Europe.  In  that  year  a  party  of 
fair-haired  Norman  robbers,  sailing  southward  in  their 
long-beaked  ships,  came  upon  the  mouth  of  the  Seine, 
and  entering  the  stream,  pushed  up  as  far  as  Paris 
itself.  It  was  on  Holy  Saturday,  and  the  chronicler 
dryly  remarks  that  they  had  probably  not  come  so  far 
with  the  object  of  performing  their  Easter  devotions  ; 
and  though  Charles  the  Bald  came  out  in  time  to  meet 
them  at  the  monastery  of  Saint  Denis  with  a  handful 
of  men-at-arms,  the  inferiority  of  his  force  lent  to  the 
opposition  he  made  the  appearance  of  an  almost  peace- 
ful reception,  and  that  which  had  promised  to  be  a 
battle  degenerated  to  the  ignominy  of  a  bargain  and  a 
ransom. 

But  the  Saracens  knew  not  of  these  things,  and  pur- 
sued their  course  with  occasional  checks.  In  the  same 
year  their  motley  fleet,  sailing  up  to  get  possession  of 
Ponza  and  of  the  other  islands  which  lie  in  the  same 
waters,  was  met  by  the  combined  forces  of  Amalfi, 
Gaeta  and  Sorrento,  under  the  valiant  Duke  of  Naples, 
and  suffered  signal  defeat.  Sergius  drove  them  south- 
ward before  the  wind,  chasing  them  past  Ischia  and 


The  Normans  129 

Capri,  and  across  the  wide  Gulf  of  Salerno  to  the  dis- 
tant islet  of  Licosa.  There  the  Saracens  had  gained  a 
foothold,  not  far  from  the  ancient  city  of  Elea,  which 
was  that  same  Velia  where  Verres  had  landed  his  ill- 
gotten  Sicilian  spoils.  Thence  also  the  Neapolitans 
dislodged  them  and  drove  them  still  further  down  the 
coast.  Soon,  however,  they  repaired  their  fleet  in 
Palermo,  and  came  back  in  force ;  the  armament  of  the 
Christian  allies  had  already  dispersed,  and  Sergius  was 
unable  to  prevent  the  Saracens  from  taking  the  strong 
castle  of  Misenum,  which  is  Capo  Miseno.  It  was  from 
that  point  that  the  young  Pliny  had  watched  the  stupen- 
dous eruption  of  Vesuvius  that  destroyed  Pompeii, 
and  the  harbour  and  fortifications,  of  which  the  Romans 
had  made  such  an  important  naval  station,  became  a 
source  of  strength  to  the  pirate  Moslems. 

As  an  instance  of  the  readiness  with  which  the  Nor- 
man pilgrims  could  lay  down  the  staff  and  draw  the 
sword,  I  shall  translate  the  following  passage  from 
the  history  of  Amatus  of  Monte  Cassino,  as  it  is 
quoted  by  Abbe  Delarc. 

"  Before  the  year  1000  of  the  Incarnation  of  our 
Lord,  there  appeared  in  the  world  forty  valiant  pil- 
grims ;  they  came  from  the  Holy  Sepulchre  in  Jerusa- 
lem, and  reached  Salerno  just  at  the  moment  when 
the  city,  being  vigorously  besieged  by  the  Saracens, 
was  about  to  surrender.  Before  that  time  Salerno  had 
been  tributary  to  the  Saracens,  and  when  the  payment 


130  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

of  the  tribute  was  in  arrears  the  Saracens  immedi- 
ately appeared  with  a  numerous  fleet,  collected  the 
sums  due,  slew  the  inhabitants,  and  ravaged  the  coun- 
try. On  learning  this,  the  Norman  pilgrims  were 
angered  by  the  injustice  of  the  said  Saracens,  and 
because  the  Christians  were  subject  to  them ;  they 
therefore  went  before  the  most  serene  prince  Guai- 
mar,  who  ruled  Salerno  in  the  spirit  of  justice,  and 
they  asked  arms  and  horses  of  him  that  they  might 
fight  against  the  Saracens.  They  told  him  that  they 
did  not  this  thing  for  the  hope  of  any  recompense 
but  because  the  pride  of  the  Saracens  was  intolerable 
to  them.  When  they  had  attained  what  they  asked, 
these  forty  Northmen  fell  upon  the  Saracen  host  and 
slew  a  great  many  of  them,  so  that  the  rest  took  to 
flight  both  by  sea  and  land ;  and  the  Normans  had 
the  victory,  and  the  Salernitans  were  delivered  from 
the  bondage  of  the  Pagans.  But  these  Normans, 
having  acted  only  for  love  of  God,  would  accept 
nothing  in  return.  Then  the  Salernitans  gave  the 
Normans  lemons,  and  almonds,  and  preserves  of  nuts, 
and  scarlet  mantles,  and  iron  instruments  adorned 
with  gold,  that  they  might  induce  their  fellow  coun- 
trymen to  come  and  inhabit  a  land  flowing  with 
milk  and  honey,  and  rich  in  good  things.  So  the 
victorious  pilgrims,  when  they  returned  to  Normandy, 
bore  witness  as  they  had  promised,  and  invited  all 
Norman  nobles  to  come  into  Italy,  and  some  took 


The  Normans  131 

courage  to  go  thither  on  account  of  the  riches  that 
were  there." 

From  the  year  996  Normandy  was  under  the  rule 
of  Duke  Richard  the  Second,  whose  vassals  were  gen- 
erally in  revolt  against  him,  and  at  war  among  them- 
selves. About  the  year  1015  two  Norman  gentles, 
Gilbert  Buatere  and  Guillaume  Repostelle,  quarrelled 
about  the  latter's  daughter,  and  Gilbert,  who  was  the 
better  man  of  his  hands,  settled  the  difficulty  by  throw- 
ing his  adversary  over  a  precipice.  Fearing  Duke 
Richard,  however,  Gilbert  joined  himself  to  certain 
other  Normans,  who  were  also  at  odds  with  their 
sovereign,  and  with  their  men-at-arms  they  departed 
together  to  go  into  Italy.  Among  these  men  was 
Raoul  de  Toeni,  who  at  once  became  their  leader. 

At  that  time  Pope  Benedict  the  Eighth  was  alarmed 
by  the  growing  influence  of  the  Eastern  Empire  in  the 
south  of  Italy,  and  was  doing  his  best  to  reconcile  the 
Lombard  princes  of  Capua,  Benevento,  and  Salerno, 
in  order  that  they  might  lay  aside  their  private  enmi- 
ties and  join  forces  with  him  against  the  Greeks. 

Now  at  this  time,  also,  a  certain  Meles,  a  Lombard 
and  a  citizen  of  Bari,  which  was  the  capital  of  the 
Greek  possessions  in  Italy,  made  an  attempt  to  free 
his  country  from  the  Byzantine  domination,  and  he 
had  actually  got  together  a  force  with  which  he  fought 
a  battle  against  the  Byzantines.  He  was  beaten, 
however,  and  retired  within  the  walls  of  Bari,  which 


132 


The  Rulers  of  the  South 


he    held   for   some   time,    but   was  at    last   obliged   to 
abandon.      He   then  wandered    far    and  wide  through 

Italy  seeking 
allies,  but  find- 
ing none. 
It  was  at  this 
time  that  Raoul 
de  Toeni  and 
his  companions 
came  to  Rome, 
craving  the 
blessing  of  Pope 
Benedict  the 
Eighth ;  and  the 
Pope,  on  grant- 
ing it,  strongly 
advised  them  to 
join  forces  with 
Meles  against 
the  Greeks. 
They  did  so, 

and  met  him  at 
MB 

Capua,    and    be- 
came    the     nu- 

['. 

ENTRANCE  TO    CHURCH    OF    SAN    NICOLA,    BARI  C  C 

army  of  free- 
booter patriots  who  lost  no  time  in  devouring  what- 
soever the  Greeks  had  left  untouched  throughout  the 


The  Normans  133 

south.  The  Emperor  of  Constantinople  sent  his 
troops  against  them,  but  the  wily  little  Greeks  were 
not  a  match  for  the  colossal  Northmen  at  hand  to 
hand,  and  the  allies  of  Meles  carried  everything 
before  them.  More  pilgrims  and  adventurers  reached 
Italy  from  the  north,  while  Constantinople  sent 
legions  upon  legions,  so  that  the  lances  of  the  Greek 
army  seemed  as  close  and  thick  as  canes  in  the  brake, 
and  its  camp  was  like  a  hive  of  bees.  At  last  the 
Byzantines  were  so  many  that  they  won  the  day,  and 
on  the  right  bank  of  the  Ofanto,  on  the  very  ground 
which  Hannibal  had  drenched  with  Roman  blood,  the 
little  army  of  Meles  was  cut  to  pieces.  Out  of  two 
hundred  and  fifty  Norman  nobles  who  rode  into  that 
fight,  ten  came  back  alive ;  but  the  dead  had  sold  their 
lives  dearly,  and  the  plain  that  is  called  the  Field  of 
Blood,  for  the  many  battles  fought  there,  was  strewn 
far  and  wide  with  the  bodies  of  the  Greeks  and  their 
mercenaries. 

This  battle  was  fought  in  October,  1019;  Meles  and 
Raoul  were  among  the  survivors,  and  were  well  re- 
ceived by  the  emperor,  Henry  the  Second,  with  whom 
they  took  refuge,  but  Meles  died  in  the  spring  of  the 
following  year,  and  the  cause  of  Apulian  freedom 
seemed  lost. 

Before  this  battle  of  Cannae  a  few  Normans  had 
separated  themselves  from  their  countrymen  and  had 
taken  up  their  habitation  in  a  small  town  built  by  the 


134      *        The  Rulers  of  the  South 

Greeks  in  the  pass  of  the  Apennines,  which  was  con- 
sidered the  key  of  Apulia.  The  stronghold  received 
the  name  of  Troy,  Troia,  and  afterwards  played  an 
important  part  in  the  struggles  which  took  place. 
This  small  party  of  Northmen  seem  to  have  taken 
service  on  the  Greek  side,  but  they  were,  of  course, 
not  engaged  at  Cannae,  and  after  that  battle  they 
found  themselves  on  the  winning  side.  The  surviv- 
ors of  those  who  had  fought  against  the  Greeks,  and 
certain  others,  were  presented  by  the  victors  to  the 
Abbot  of  Monte  Cassino,  who,  with  the  Lombard 
princes,  had  immediately  made  advances  to  the 
Emperor  of  Constantinople. 

At  this  point,  however,  the  Emperor  of  the  West, 
Henry  the  Second,  interfered,  and  sent  an  army  under 
the  Archbishop  of  Cologne,  a  famous  fighting  prelate, 
with  orders  to  chastise  the  Lombard  princes  and  the 
Abbot  of  Monte  Cassino  for  their  defection  to  the 
Greek  side,  to  take  Troia,  and  to  reduce  Apulia  to 
submission.  The  first  part  of  this  military  expedition 
was  accomplished  without  difficulty,  but  the  handful 
of  Normans  in  Troia  defended  themselves  throughout 
a  long  siege  against  the  German  troops,  and  Henry 
was  forced  to  content  himself  with  a  general  state- 
ment on  the  part  of  the  non-combatants  that  they 
neither  had  done  nor  would  do  anything  against  the 
will  of  the  Holy  Roman  Emperor. 

The  only  free  Normans  now  left  in  Italy  were  those 


The  Normans  135 

in  garrison  at  Troia,  and  a  few  who  had  been  given  to 
the  Greek  Abbot  of  Monte  Cassino  and  were  set  free 
by  Henry  the  Second  and  established  by  him  in  the 
imperial  domain  of  Comino,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Sora. 
The  first,  while  pretending  loyalty  to  Constantinople, 


CASTLE   AT    MONTE    SANT*    ANGELO 

were  really  independent  in  the  south,  and  held  a  position 
of  the  highest  strategic  importance ;  the  others,  with 
a  few  more  of  their  countrymen  who  came  down  from 
Normandy,  at  once  set  about  increasing  the  domain 
given  them  by  the  emperor.  One  of  the  persons 
most  directly  injured  by  their  depredations  very  nearly 


136  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

proved  their  destruction.  With  two  hundred  and  fifty 
men-at-arms  he  prepared  an  ambush  in  the  defiles  of 
the  mountains,  and  sent  forward  a  score  of  his  men  to 
decoy  the  Normans  from  their  camp.  The  Northmen 
fell  into  the  trap  and  rode  out  at  once ;  but  the  others 
turned  and  fled  as  they  had  been  instructed,  and  the 
Normans,  who  were  but  five  and  twenty  in  number, 
dashed  after  them  in  pursuit.  In  a  few  moments  they 
found  themselves  face  to  face  with  the  enemy's  full 
force,  and  hemmed  in  so  that  they  could  not  retreat. 
Seeing  that  they  were  matched  against  overwhelming 
odds,  they  sheathed  their  swords  and  threw  up  their 
empty  hands,  but  the  leader  of  the  enemy  would  not 
be  cheated  of  his  revenge,  and  in  a  loud  voice  com- 
manded his  men  to  fall  upon  them  and  slay  them. 
Then  those  five  and  twenty  horsemen  drew  their  swords 
again,  and  fought  for  their  lives,  being  one  against  ten  ; 
and  they  killed  of  the  enemy  sixty  out  of  two  hundred 
and  fifty,  and  put  the  rest  to  an  ignominious  flight,  and 
carried  back  the  rich  spoil  of  arms  to  their  camp,  having 
themselves  lost  but  one  man. 

But  now  Henry  the  Second  and  Pope  Benedict  the 
Eighth  died  in  the  same  year,  and  the  Lombard 
princes  whom  the  German  emperor  had  deposed  at  once 
made  a  league  with  the  Greeks  to  regain  their  possessions. 
The  Normans,  having  nothing  better  to  do,  and  always 
wisely  anxious  to  find  themselves  on  the  winning  side, 
promptly  joined  them.  Capua  resisted  the  siege  during " 


The  Normans  137 

eighteen  months,  but  was  at  last  taken,  and  the  Lombard 
Pandolph,  surnamed  the  Wolf  of  the  Abruzzi,  got  posses- 
sion of  his  own  again.  As  soon  as  he  had  established 
himself,  he  proceeded  to  distribute  the  lands  belonging 
to  the  abbey  of  Monte  Cassino  among  those  who  had 
helped  him,  and  in  the  following  year  he  even  succeeded 
in  getting  possession  of  Naples,  which  he  held  for  a 
short  time.  The  Neapolitan  duke,  however,  soon 
turned  the  tables  upon  him  by  engaging  the  Normans 
on  his  side,  and  as  they  had  got  all  they  could  hope 
for  from  Pandolph,  they  were  easily  persuaded  to  take 
Naples  away  from  him  again  and  restore  it  to  the  good 
Duke  Sergius.  They  now  founded  the  first  Norman 
city  in  Italy.  In  1030,  Randolph,  or  Rainulf,  built 
Aversa,  a  few  miles  north  of  Naples,  and  surrounded 
it  with  a  moat  and  with  very  strong  fortifications ;  and 
with  the  land  on  which  it  was  built  he  and  his  compan- 
ions received  a  broad  territory  in  that  country  which 
is  to  this  day  the  garden  of  Italy. 

The  year  1030  is  therefore  a  date  of  high  importance 
in  the  story  of  the  Normans,  for  it  marks  the  period 
at  which  they  ceased  to  be  mere  soldiers  of  fortune, 
fighting  for  any  prince  who  would  pay  them,  and  began 
to  be  rulers  in  their  own  right.  The  way  had  been 
prepared  for  conquest;  history  paused  in  expectation 
of  the  conqueror. 

In  the  days  of  Robert  the  Devil,  otherwise  called  the 
Magnificent,  there  lived  in  a  castle  that  dominated 


138  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

the  village  of  Haute ville-la-Guichard,  a  few  miles  north- 
east of  Coutances,  a  certain  Tancred.  He  was  neither 
great  nor  rich,  but  he  was  a  strong  man  and  wise  as  the 
Normans  were ;  he  was  simply  a  Norman  gentle,  like 
many  hundreds  of  others.  Within  fifty  years  his  sons 
had  taken  for  themselves  Sicily,  and  all  the  south  of 
Italy  and  the  islands ;  they  made  and  unmade  popes, 
bid  defiance  to  the  Emperor  of  Constantinople,  and 
treated  the  Emperor  of  the  West  as  best  suited  their 
own  purposes. 

Of  this  Tancred  it  is  told,  that  when  hunting  the 
wild  boar  with  the  old  Duke  Richard,  being  then  a  very 
young  man,  he  dealt  a  memorable  sword-stroke  that 
helped  to  make  his  fortune.  It  was  a  law  then  that  no 
man  should  strike  at  the  game  put  up  by  the  sovereign, 
and  on  that  day  a  boar  of  vast  size  and  strength  had 
escaped  the  duke's  own  spear  and  was  driven  by  the 
dogs  through  a  thick  wood  to  the  foot  of  a  cliff.  Tan- 
cred, being  swifter  and  stronger  than  the  rest,  came 
upon  the  beast  there,  and  saw  how  he  was  tearing  the 
poor  hounds  with  his  tusks,  being  at  bay  where  he 
could  not  escape.  Then  Tancred,  pitying  the  hounds 
greatly,  and  having  lost  his  spear,  pulled  out  his  long 
Norman  sword,  and  the  boar  came  at  him.  He  stood 
his  ground,  and  dealt  a  single  thrust  at  the  beast's  fore- 
head, and  the  good  blade  pierced  hide  and  skull  and 
throat  and  body,  and  the  cross-hilt  struck  the  bone. 
But  Tancred,  fearing  for  himself  because  he  had  slain 


The  Normans  139 

the  duke's  game,  turned  and  slipped  away  through  the 
woods,  leaving  his  sword  in  the  boar,  for  he  trusted 
that  the  duke  might  not  find  the  place,  and  that  he 
might  come  back  himself  and  get  the  blade.  Pres- 
ently, however,  the  duke  and  his  followers  came  crash- 
ing through  the  woods,  and  -they  found  the  dead  beast 
lying  there ;  they  dragged  out  the  sword,  and  many  of 
them  recognized  it.  Duke  Richard  was  not  angry, 
though  the  rule  had  been  broken,  and  he  praised  the 
blow,  and  made  a  friend  of  the  man  who  had  dealt  it. 
Tancred,  therefore,  established  himself  at  the  court  of 
Normandy.  He  was  twice  married,  and  had  twelve  sons 
—  five  by  his  first  wife  and  seven  by  the  second ;  and  it 
is  easy  to  understand  that  the  estate  of  a  poor  Norman 
gentleman  should  have  seemed  an  insufficient  provision 
for  so  many.  Tancred,  therefore,  brought  up  his  sons 
to  know  that  each  must  make  his  own  fortune  with  his 
own  sword.  Three  of  the  eldest  soon  joined  one  of 
those  parties  which  now  continually  left  Normandy  for 
the  south  of  Italy,  and  reaching  Naples  soon  after  the 
foundation  of  Aversa  they  took  service  with  Count 
Rainulf,  and  soon  acquired  an  extraordinary  reputation 
for  courage  and  quickness  of  resource.  Their  names 
were  William,  called  Bras-de-Fer,  or  the  Iron  Arm, 
Drogo,  and  Humphrey. 

At  that  time  the  feudal  system  of  the  middle  ages 
had  already  reached  a  great  development.  The  idea 
which  was  at  the  foot  of  it,  was  that  all  lordship 


140  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

depended  from  the  sovereign  in  a  regular  chain  of 
decreasing  links,  and  that  no  man  could  hold  large 
estates,  nor  small,  without  owing  allegiance  to  one  more 
powerful  than  himself,  who  in  turn  did  homage  to  a 
greater,  and  so  on  up  to  the  emperor  himself,  or  the 
Church  of  Rome.  Though  Rainulf  had  a  city  and  a 
territory  of  his  own,  he  had  nevertheless  attached  him- 
self in  a  sort  of  military  service  to  the  powerful  Prince 
of  Capua,  Pandolph  the  Fourth,  the  cruel  and  unscrupu- 
lous Wolf  of  the  Abruzzi.  He  does  not,  however, 
appear  to  have  attached  much  importance  to  the  idea 
of  fealty  towards  the  feudal  lord  he  had  chosen,  for 
soon  afterwards,  when  Pandolph  quarrelled  with  the 
Duke  of  Sorrento,  who  resented  the  old  Wolf's  too 
pressing  admiration  of  his  wife,  Rainulf  did  not  hesitate 
to  go  over,  with  all  his  Normans,  to  Guaimar,  Prince 
of  Salerno,  who  was  the  lady's  uncle ;  and  the  conse- 
quence was  that  Pandolph  was  soon  obliged  to  take 
refuge  in  his  castle,  while  the  Emperor  Conrad  himself 
appeared  in  Capua,  in  the  year  1038.  From  his  strong- 
hold of  Sant'  Agata,  Pandolph  purchased  a  sort  of  par- 
don from  the  emperor  for  the  sum  of  three  hundred 
pounds  of  gold,  but  the  emperor  nevertheless  deposed 
him  from  his  principality  and  presented  it  to  Guaimar, 
with  the  standards,  or  gonfalons,  of  Salerno  and  Capua. 
Guaimar,  who  knew  that  he  should  not  be  able  to  take 
possession  of  the  new  principality  without  a  struggle,  in 
which  the  help  of  the  Normans  would  be  indispensable 


The  Normans  141 

to  him,  seized  the  occasion  of  recommending  them  to 
the  emperor,  who  therefore  solemnly  confirmed  Rainulf 
in  his  county  of  Aversa,  and  presented  him  with  a 
lance  and  a  standard  blazoned  with  the  imperial  arms, 
thereby  creating  the  chief  of  the  Normans  a  vassal  of 
the  Holy  Roman  Empire.  Guaimar  made  use  of  his 
new  position  to  extend  his  territory  in  all  directions. 
In  April,  1039,  he  had  got  possession  of  Amalfi,  then 
one  of  the  most  prosperous  commercial  cities  in  the 
Mediterranean,  and  so  situated  at  the  mouth  of  a  rugged 
ravine,  protected  on  both  sides  by  enormous  cliffs,  that 
it  was  altogether  impregnable  to  an  attack  by  land. 
The  Duchess  of  Sorrento,  who  had  been  the  indirect 
cause  of  so  much  misfortune  to  her  admiring  Wolf,  was 
destined  to  bring  destruction  upon  her  husband ;  with 
some  show  of  reason  the  latter  repudiated  her,  where- 
upon her  uncle  of  Salerno  seized  Sorrento,  adding  it  to 
his  wide  possessions,  and  investing  his  brother  Guy  with 
the  Duchy.  The  somewhat  hardly  treated  husband  was 
condemned  to  a  solitary  confinement,  in  which  he  was 
permitted  to  reflect  upon  his  honourable  errors  of  judg- 
ment until  death  relieved  him  from  the  contemplation 
of  his  misfortunes. 

Pandolph,  seeing  himself  at  so  great  a  disadvantage, 
now  undertook  a  journey  to  Constantinople,  in  the 
hope  of  getting  help  from  the  emperor;  but  the  wily 
Guaimar  was  before  him,  and  had  already  sent  am- 
bassadors who  practically  offered,  on  his  behalf,  to 


142  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

help  the  Greeks  in  driving  the  Saracens  from  Sicily, 
and  the  emperor  accepted  his  advance  without  hesi- 
tation. 

Now  in  1034  the  Saracens  of  Sicily,  being  involved 
in  civil  war,  had  requested  the  Byzantines  to  intervene, 
which  they  had  of  course  done  in  the  hope  of  recon- 
quering the  island ;  but  the  other  party  appealed  to 
the  African  Mohammedans,  who  very  soon  got  the 
better  of  the  struggle.  The  death  of  the  leader  with 
whom  the  Greeks  had  allied  themselves  relieved  them 
of  all  obligation,  and  they  immediately  resolved  to 
forget  that  they  had  been  called  in  as  allies  and  to 
assume  the  part  of  conquerors.  Under  the  orders  of 
George  Maniaces  they  sent  out  one  of  those  extraor- 
dinary armies,  such  as  only  the  Eastern  Empire  could 
have  raised.  Mercenaries  were  collected  from  every  ter- 
ritory that  owed  allegiance  to  the  Eastern  emperor,  — 
Scandinavians,  Russians,  Calabrians,  Apulians,  Greeks, 
and  Asiatics  of  every  race ;  and  the  wise  Guaimar  of 
Salerno,  who  was  put  to  much  inconvenience  by  the 
turbulence  of  his  Norman  friends,  was  glad  to  lend 
them  to  the  Greek  general,  and  promised  that  if  they 
agreed  to  help  the  invasion  of  Sicily,  they  should  be 
rewarded  both  by  the  Greeks  and  by  himself.  Three 
hundred,  or  perhaps  five  hundred,  Normans  volunteered 
for  this  service,  under  the  orders  of  William  Bras-de- 
Fer,  Drogo,  and  Humphrey ;  and  with  them  went  also 
a  certain  Lombard  of  the  north,  named  Ardoin. 


The  Normans  143 

In  1038,  the  Greeks  and  this  little  band  of  Normans 
crossed  the  straits,  landed  at  Faro,  a  little  to  the  west 
of  Messina,  and  marched  upon  the  town.  The  news 
of  the  Greek  invasion  had  put  an  end  to  the  civil 
strife  of  the  Mohammedans,  and  they  met  the  army 
of  the  emperor  with  fifty  thousand  men  at  Rametta. 
They  fought  bravely  and  were  beaten,  and  with  the 
true  instinct  of  the  Greek  for  the  old  Greek  capital, 
Maniaces  at  once  advanced  upon  Syracuse.  Here  the 
Moslems  defended  themselves  in  the  fortress  they 
had  built  among  the  ruins,  and  the  siege  lasted  some 
time.  The  city  was  under  the  command  of  a  Moslem 
governor,  and  with  him  William  Bras-de-Fer  fought 
to  the  death  in  single  combat.  Brave  as  the  bravest, 
and  far  stronger  than  other  men,  the  Moslem  had  long 
been  the  terror  of  the  Christians ;  but  his  hour  was 
at  hand,  and  the  vanguard  of  a  race  stronger  than 
his  was  before  him.  He  fell  before  the  walls  of 
Syracuse,  pierced  by  the  Norman  spear,  and  his  fall 
foreran  by  a  few  days  a  surrender  of  his  city.  Then 
the  Greeks  and  the  Normans  went  in  together  in  tri- 
umph, and  from  every  nook  and  hiding  place,  from 
the  city  of  tombs,  from  the  catacombs  of  Saint  Martian 
by  the  Church  of  Saint  John,  from  the  recesses  of 
those  vast  quarries  whence  the  Greek  tyrants  had 
hewn  the  stone  that  built  five  cities,  gathering  in  such 
numbers  as  no  man  had  guessed,  the  long-oppressed 
Christians  came  forth  to  meet  their  deliverers,  and  to 


144  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

show  them  the  treasures  of  gold  and  silver  vessels, 
and  the  relics  of  the  saints  and  the  body  of  the  holy 
Lucy,  which  was  found  whole  and  fresh  as  on  the 
day  when  it  had  been  laid  to  rest.  And  the  chronicle 
says  that  the  coffin  which  held  the  saint's  body  was 
overlaid  with  silver  and  was  sent  to  Constantinople. 
Forthwith  Maniaces  began  to  build  the  castle  on  the 


CASTELLO   MANIACE,   SYRACUSE 

southern  point  of  Ortygia  which  still  bears  his  name, 
and  to  strengthen  the  other  fortifications  as  a  base 
from  which  to  effect  the  conquest  of  the  island. 

The  Saracens  who  had  been  beaten  at  Messina  had 
retired  to  Palermo.  The  Greek  admiral,  Stephanos, 
was  not  able  to  hinder  their  retreat  by  sea,  and  Mani- 
aces was  so  enraged  at  the  failure  that  when  Stephanos 
arrived  in  Syracuse  he  fell  upon  him  and  beat  him  with 
a  stick,  in  the  presence  of  the  troops. 


The  Normans  145 

A  similar  and  a  worse  indignity  had  been  inflicted 
upon  the  Lombard  captain,  Ardoin,  most  probably 
after  a  battle  which  was  fought  somewhere  between 
Messina  and  Syracuse.  During  the  engagement, 
Ardoin  had  got  possession  of  a  very  beautiful  horse, 
after  slaying  its  Saracen  rider  with  his  own  hand.  The 
battle  being  over,  the  grasping  Maniaces  commanded 
that  the  horse  should  be  given  to  him,  which  Ardoin 
refused  to  do.  In  a  fit  of  rage,  Maniaces  commanded 
that  the  Lombard  should  be  scourged  through  the 
camp,  and  that  his  horse  should  be  taken  from  him. 
The  consequence  of  these  two  outrageous  acts  was  that 
the  Normans  deserted  in  a  body  with  Ardoin,  while 
Stephanos,  the  admiral,  who  had  interest  at  court  in 
Constantinople,  caused  Maniaces  to  be  recalled.  On 
reaching  the  capital  of  the  East,  he  was  cruelly  muti- 
lated and  thrown  into  prison,  where  he  remained  two 
years.  Ardoin  and  the  Normans  retired  to  Aversa  and 
Salerno,  vowing  vengeance  upon  the  Greeks;  and  there- 
after they  kept  the  oath  they  took.  The  Normans  were 
as  remarkable  for  the  subtlety  with  which  they  could 
lead  their  enemies  into  a  trap  as  they  were  conspicu- 
ously brave  when  forced  to  fight  against  odds  in  the 
open  field,  and  in  some  degree  they  have  transmitted 
both  those  qualities  to  the  Englishmen  of  to-day.  Still 
smarting  from  the  Greek  lash,  Ardoin  hastened  to  visit 
the  Greek  captain  of  the  Byzantine  provinces  in  Italy, 
gained  his  confidence  and  friendship  by  rich  gifts,  and 


146  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

persuaded  the  deluded  official  to  confide  to  him  the 
government  of  Melfi,  the  stronghold  which  overlooks 
the  plains  of  Cannae  and  the  river  Ofanto,  and  is  the 
true  key  to  the  possession  of  Apulia  from  the  north- 
west side.  The  keen  Lombard  at  once  set  about 
secretly  stirring  up  the  people  against  the  Greeks,  and 
as  soon  as  he  saw  that  revolution  was  ripe  he  made 
pretext  of  a  pilgrimage  to  Rome  in  order  to  consult 
Count  Rainulf  and  the  Norman  chiefs  at  Aversa. 
There,  in  the  city  they  themselves  had  founded,  the 
daring  little  band  of  fighting  men  distributed  the  south 
among  themselves.  Ardoin  was  to  hand  over  Melfi, 
whence  it  would  be  easy  to  expel  the  Greeks  from  Italy 
altogether,  and  he  was  to  take  one-half  of  the  conquered 
country,  while  the  Normans  were  to  divide  the  remain- 
der. The  Northmen  swore  a  solemn  oath,  and,  as  the 
Abbe  Delarc  briefly  expresses  it,  three  hundred  Nor- 
mans, led  by  twelve  chiefs,  followed  Ardoin  to  fight  in 
open  warfare  against  an  empire  that  still  held  a  great 
part  of  Europe  and  Asia,  and  ruled  over  many  millions 
of  subjects.  Among  these  chiefs  were  William  Bras- 
de-Fer  and  Drogo,  Tancred's  sons,  as  well  as  Ardoin 
himself.  With  the  compactness  and  energy  of  those 
sudden  storms  which,  in  the  flash  of  a  minute,  drive 
straight  clearings  through  the  mighty  forests  of  Suabia, 
tearing  up  thousands  of  ancient  trees  in  their  path, 
the  little  army  fell  upon  Melfi.  The  few  Greeks  that 
were  there  fled  almost  without  resistance,  and  the  Nor- 


The  Normans  147 

mans  were  masters  of  the  place  in  a  day.  With  the 
instinct  of  true  conquerors,  they  lost  no  time  in  forti- 
fying their  position ;  but  it  was  by  the  habitual  methods 
of  highway  robbers  and  pirates  that  they  began  to 
extend  their  conquest,  pillaging  Venosa  in  the  south, 
Ravello  in  the  east,  and  Ascoli  to  northward,  while 
none  dared  stand  against  them,  but  all  people  were 
amazed  and  terror-struck  under  their  furious  raids. 

And  now  their  victims,  seeing  that  the  Normans  had 
not  come  to  free  them  but  to  devour  them,  appealed  to 
the  Greeks  again,  and  the  captain  of  the  south,  who 
had  given  up  Amain  to  Ardoin,  came  against  the  Nor- 
mans with  a  great  army,  and  met  them  near  Venosa. 
There  a  herald  of  the  Greeks  rode  forward,  mounted  on 
a  splendid  charger,  to  offer  the  invaders  terms  of  peace 
if  they  would  ride  away  and  harry  the  country  no  more ; 
and  while  he  was  speaking  a  big  Norman,  whose  name 
was  Hugo  Tudextifen,  stood  by  his  horse's  head.  But 
when  he  had  said  all,  the  giant  raised  his  ungloved  fist 
and  smote  the  horse  between  the  eyes,  so  that  he  fell 
down  dead ;  and  this  he  did  that  the  Greek  might  know 
what  manner  of  men  Northmen  were. 

So  the  next  day,  which  was  the  seventeenth  of  March, 
1041,  the  battle  was  fought,  and  the  Normans  had  seven 
hundred  mounted  men  and  five  hundred  men-at-arms  who 
fought  on  foot,  for  they  had  recruited  many  among  the 
discontented  people  of  Apulia.  The  Greeks  were  thirty 
thousand,  and  some  have  said  that  they  were  sixty  thou- 


148  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

sand,  and  they  came  against  the  Normans  drawn  up  in 
a  wedge,  as  was  their  wont.  They  were  utterly  and 
completely  vanquished,  and  besides  the  thousands  that 
fell  under  the  Norman  sword,  many  were  drowned  as 
they  tried  to  cross  the  stream  in  their  flight. 

But  such  was  the  energy  of  the  Greek  general  that 
in  little  more  than  seven  weeks  after  his  humiliating 
defeat  he  faced  the  Normans  again,  on  the  fourth  of 
May,  in  the  great  plain  of  Cannae,  ever  thirsty  for 
blood.  Again  the  same  fate  met  him,  again  the  Nor- 
mans slew  until  they  could  slay  no  more,  again  the 
waters  of  the  river  swallowed  up  thousands  of  terri- 
fied fugitives.  On  the  field  of  battle  were  found 
among  the  dead  two  great  churchmen,  Angelus, 
Bishop  of  Troia,  and  Stephen,  Bishop  of  Acerenza ; 
for  in  those  days  bishops  rode  out  to  battle  like 
other  men,  and  in  the  south  the  Church  was  bound 
to  Constantinople. 

With  a  tenacity  unusual  in  the  Greeks  in  those  days, 
the  Byzantine  general  collected  the  remains  of  his 
troops,  brought  over  others  from  Sicily,  and  prepared 
to  face  the  Normans  a  third  time ;  but  the  Eastern 
emperor  had  lost  confidence  in  the  unsuccessful 
leader,  and  replaced  him  by  another.  The  Normans 
on  their  side  made  use  of  the  booty  they  had  taken 
in  order  to  raise  fresh  troops,  and  with  their  usual 
diplomatic  skill  they  chose  as  their  commander-in- 
chief  a  brother  of  the  Lombard  Prince  of  Benevento. 


The  Normans 


149 


The  third  battle  was  fought  on  the  third  of  Sep- 
tember, in  the  same  year,  1041,  almost  on  the  ground 
where  the  last  had  been  fought.  The  Normans  had 


SARACEN-NORMAN    WINDOW    IN    THE   OSPEDALETTI,   TRAPANI 

suffered  great  losses,  in  spite  of  their  victories,  the 
people  of  Apulia  believed  that  the  Eastern  Empire 
was  in  earnest  at  last,  and  the  little  army  of  invaders 
could  muster  but  seven  hundred  men  to  face  ten 


150  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

thousand.  William  Bras-de-Fer  himself,  ill  of  the 
quartan  fever,  sat  on  his  horse  at  a  little  distance, 
looking  on.  The  Greek  general  harangued  his  troops 
in  a  heroic  strain,  calling  up  legends  of  Achilles  and 
stories  of  Philip  and  Alexander.  The  Greek  host 
came  on  in  even  order  against  an  adversary  that  was 
despicably  inferior  in  numbers ;  the  Normans  faced 
them  like  men,  and  fought  like  lions,  but  were  driven 
back  by  the  sheer  weight  that  opposed  them.  Then 
William  Bras-de-Fer,  ill  as  he  was,  drew  his  great 
sword  and  rode  at  the  foe  for  life  or  death ;  and 
the  Normans  took  heart  and  struck  ten  times  while 
the  Greeks  struck  once,  and  hewed  them  in  pieces 
upon  the  plain ;  and  when  there  was  no  Greek  left  to 
fight  them,  they  bound  the  Greek  general  upon  his 
horse,  and  with  great  joy  rode  back  to  Melfi,  bearing 
of  the  rich  spoil  as  much  as  they  could  carry.  The 
victory  was  decisive,  and  its  consequences  were  des- 
tined to  be  enduring. 

The  history  of  the  following  years  chiefly  concerns 
two  struggles  of  a  very  different  nature,  one  of  which 
took  place  between  the  Normans  of  Melfi  and  the 
Greeks,  for  the  possession  of  Apulia,  while  the  other 
was  entered  into  by  the  monks  of  Monte  Cassino,  in 
the  hope  of  regaining  those  territories  which  at  vari- 
ous times  had  been  taken  from  them.  In  this  war, 
Normans  found  themselves  engaged  on  each  side, 
and  seldom  hesitated  to  go  over  from  one  side  to  the 


The  Normans  151 

other    when    their    interests    could    be    served    by    so 
doing. 

It  would  be  impossible  within  such  narrow  limits 
even  to  recapitulate  the  events  which  took  place  at 
this  time  in  Constantinople.  It  is  enough  to  remind 
the  reader  that  Maniaces  had  been  disgraced  and 
thrown  into  prison,  and  otherwise  ill  treated,  and  to 
add  that  he  was  now  set  at  liberty  after  a  revolution 
in  which  an  emperor  was  deposed,  and  a  former 
empress  brought  back  to  power.  The  unfortunate 
general  was  restored  to  all  his  honours,  and  was 
immediately  sent  with  a  large  army  to  reconquer 
Apulia.  In  the  spring  of  1042  he  landed  in  the  safe 
harbour  of  Taranto,  and  rapidly  collecting  such  native 
troops  as  would  join  his  standard,  he  marched  north- 
ward in  the  direction  of  the  old  fighting  ground. 
The  Normans  of  Melfi  had  quarrelled  with  their  chief, 
and  had  recently  chosen  for  their  leader  Argyros, 
the  son  of  the  Lombard  patriot,  Meles.  At  the 
approach  of  the  Greek  army  he  made  energetic 
efforts  to  increase  his  force,  calling  upon  all  Nor- 
mans in  Italy  to  fight  the  common  foe.  In  spite  of 
every  effort,  Maniaces  was  unable  to  check  the  panic 
which  took  possession  of  his  army  when  it  was  known 
that  the  Normans  were  at  hand,  and  he  regretfully 
followed  his  men  in  their  precipitate  flight  to  Ta- 
ranto. When  the  Normans  reached  the  sea  in  pursuit, 
the  Greeks  had  disappeared  within  the  stronghold  on 


the  islet,  which  was  connected  with  the  mainland 
only  by  a  narrow  bridge.  The  chronicler,  William  of 
Apulia,  quoted  by  Delarc,  compares  the  manoeuvres 

of  William  Bras-de- 
Fer  and  the  Nor- 
mans before  Taranto 
to  the  tricks  of  the 
serpent  charmer  en- 
deavouring to  lure  a 
snake  from  its  hole. 
But  nothing  availed  ; 
the  Greeks  were 
thoroughly  fright- 
ened from  the  first, 
and  the  Normans, 
who  could  not  hope 
to  take  the  town, 
contented  them- 
selves with  their 
favourite  diversion 
of  pillaging  the 
country  wholesale. 


STATUES   IN   FRONT  OF  THE   CHURCH  OF 
SAN   DOMENICO,   TARANTO 


WCTC 
SOOnCr     Ollt     of      Sight 

than    Maniaces    led 

out  his  timid  troops  and  marched  them  along  the 
coast.  His  progress  was  marked  by  a  series  of  the 
most  atrocious  cruelties  ;  wherever  he  suspected 


The  Normans  153 

the  people  of  having  sympathized  with  the  Nor- 
mans, he  ordered  wholesale  executions ;  the  wretched 
peasants  were  hanged  and  beheaded  without  mercy, 
many  were  buried  alive  up  to  the  neck  and  left  to 
die,  and  the  dastardly  Greeks  hewed  little  children 
in  pieces  in  that  blind  rage  of  cruelty  which  only 
cowards  can  feel.  Meanwhile  the  Normans,  who 
were  now  in  force,  proceeded  with  their  conquest  of 
Apulia,  taking  one  city  after  another,  and  they 
would  soon  have  been  in  possession  of  the  whole 
country  by  force  of  arms,  if  a  new  turn  of  affairs  in 
Constantinople  had  not  brought  about  the  recall  of 
Maniaces  and  an  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Byzan- 
tine port  to  bring  about  an  alliance  with  the  Nor- 
mans. The  emperor  now  offered  Argyros  the  titles 
and  honours  of  a  Byzantine  catapan  and  of  a  patri- 
cian of  the  Empire ;  the  son  of  the  devoted  Meles 
had  the  weakness  to  yield  to  these  blandishments,  and 
immediately  proclaimed  the  supremacy  of  the  em- 
peror in  Bari.  By  this  step  he  at  once  lost  the  con- 
fidence of  the  Normans,  who  refused  to  own  him 
any  longer  for  their  chief,  and  elected  the  valiant 
William  Bras-de-Fer  for  their  count  and  leader.  With- 
out hesitation  he  presented  himself  before  Guaimar, 
Prince  of  Salerno,  as  his  liege  lord,  and  was  acknow- 
ledged by  him  as  Count  of  Apulia;  but  it  appears  that 
in  the  peculiar  scale  of  suzerainties  that  made  up  the 
feudal  system,  Rainulf  of  Aversa  became  the  nominal 


154  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

suzerain   of   Apulia,    a   sort   of   intermediary   between 
Guaimar  and  William. 

Maniaces  did  not  accept  his  recall  with  the  humility 
which  Constantinople  had  expected  of  him ;  on  the 
contrary,  he  promptly  revolted,  proclaimed  himself 
Emperor  of  the  East,  and  besieged  Argyros,  the  em- 
peror's new  ally,  in  Bari.  Failing  to  take  the  place, 
he  now  appealed  to  the  Normans,  who  indignantly 
refused  his  proposals.  He  still  held  Taranto  in  the 
south,  but  before  long  was  driven  from  that  position 
by  another  Greek  army,  crossed  the  Adriatic,  and  per- 
ished in  Bulgaria,  while  attempting  to  continue  the 
struggle.  His  death  so  far  simplified  the  political 
situation,  that  the  contest  was  now  continued  between 
two  parties  only,  the  Normans  under  William  Bras- 
de-Fer  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Greeks  of  Bari 
under  Argyros  the  Lombard  on  the  other.  These 
events  bring  us  to  the  year  1043,  and  during  their 
development  the  quarrel  about  the  lands  of  Monte 
Cassino  had  begun  and  continued.  I  shall  try  to  sum 
up  the  question  in  a  few  words.  The  abbots  of  Monte 
Cassino  had  invoked  the  assistance  of  certain  Normans 
to  defend  them,  and  about  the  same  time  Pandolph 
the  Wolf  had  presented  other  Normans  with  extensive 
lands  belonging  to  the  same  abbey.  The  Emperor 
Conrad  had  contented  himself  with  the  promise  of  the 
latter  party  to  respect  the  power  of  the  Abbot  Richer, 
who,  on  the  departure  of  the  emperor,  got  some  help 


The  Normans 


155 


from  Guaimar  of  Salerno,  and  recovered  at  least  one 
fortress.       Pandolph    the   Wolf,    who    had    meanwhile 


NORMAN    DOORWAY    AT  TKAl'ANI 


gone  to  Constantinople  to  ask  assistance  in  recovering 
Capua,  and  who  had  been  exiled  by  a  capricious  court, 
now  returned  to  Italy,  having  been  set  at  liberty  by 


156  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

the  death  of  the  emperor;  and  he  returned  as  the 
open  enemy  both  of  Guaimar  and  of  the  Abbot  Richer. 
As  allies  he  had  on  his  side  the  two  Norman  counts 
of  Aquino,  who  had  married  his  daughters,  as  well  as 
the  Normans  whom  he  had  established  on  the  abbey 
lands ;  against  him  were  ranged  on  the  side  of  the 
abbot,  Guaimar  of  Salerno  and  Rainulf  of  Aversa. 
Early  in  the  struggle  the  abbot  was  defeated  at  the 
head  of  his  men  and  taken  prisoner,  while  one  of  the 
counts  of  Aquino  fell  into  the  hands  of  Guaimar.  The 
two  prisoners  having  been  exchanged,  Richer  began 
a  journey  to  the  north,  in  order  to  appeal  to  the  Em- 
peror of  the  West;  he  was  wrecked  near  Rome,  but 
was  provided  with  means  for  continuing  on  his  way 
by  the  Roman  nobles.  In  his  absence  a  plague  broke 
out  in  Aquino  and  the  neighbourhood,  and  the  counts, 
who  were  devout  men  and  regarded  the  epidemic  as 
a  visitation  from  heaven,  went  up  to  the  abbey  as 
penitents,  on  foot  and  with  halters  round  their  necks, 
to  implore  forgiveness  for  their  evil  deeds.  Richer 
now  returned,  bringing  with  him  five  hundred  Lom- 
bards, but  was  soon  persuaded  by  Guaimar  to  travel 
northwards  again  in  order  to  recruit  a  larger  force. 
The  plague  and  the  abbot  having  disappeared  simul- 
taneously, the  counts  of  Aquino  repented  of  their 
repentance,  attacked  the  abbey  again,  seized  it,  and 
installed  the  former  abbot,  who  had  fled  with  Pandolph 
the  Wolf  to  Constantinople.  This  roused  Guaimar  to 


The  Normans  157 

action  at  last,  and  appearing  with  a  Norman  army,  he 
once  more  set  the  monks  at  liberty.  Richer  now  re- 
turned from  the  north  with  a  considerable  force,  and 
the  Normans  who  held  the  abbey  lands  were  brought 
to  reason,  and  swore  fealty  to  the  rightful  abbot. 
There  is  much  confusion  of  dates  in  the  accounts  of 
these  events,  but  it  is  certain  that  after  the  death  of 
Maniaces  the  old  quarrel  broke  out  again,  and  matters 
looked  so  ill  for  Richer  that  he  thought  for  a  while 
of  returning  to  his  native  Bavaria.  He  appears  to 
have  been  prevented  from  so  doing  by  the  following 
incident  and  its  consequences. 

A  certain  young  Norman  noble  named  Randolph, 
son-in-law  to  Rainulf  of  Aversa,  came  one  day  to  the 
abbey  on  the  mountain  with  a  number  of  his  followers. 
Before  going  in  they  entered  the  church  to  say 
their  prayers,  and,  according  to  the  custom  of  that 
time,  they  left  all  their  arms,  excepting  their  swords, 
outside  the  door.  Whether  the  monks  had  any  reason 
for  expecting  a  hostile  intention  on  their  part  does 
not  appear,  and  Randolph's  father-in-law  had  usually 
taken  their  side.  Possibly  it  was  on  general  principles 
that  they  thought  it  not  good  that  a  party  of  Norman 
knights  should  be  within  their  walls.  While  the  Nor- 
mans were  on  their  knees  in  the  church  the  monks 
and  their  Lombard  men-at-arms  fell  upon  the  visitors 
and  slew  fifteen  of  them  within  the  church ;  Randolph 
was  taken  prisoner,  and  the  rest  escaped.  The  imme- 


158  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

diate  result  of  this  treacherous  victory  was  a  regular 
campaign  against  the  Norman  holders  of  abbey  lands, 
who  were  in  a  very  short  time  obliged  to  abandon  all 
their  castles  and  retire  to  Aversa,  where  they  were 
well  received  in  consequence  of  the  attacks  made  upon 
the  monks  by  the  count's  son-in-law.  These  things 
happened  in  1045,  and  in  the  same  year  Count  Rainulf 
died  at  a  good  old  age.  In  accordance  with  the  laws 
of  the  feudal  system,  the  Normans  of  Aversa  now 
requested  Guaimar  to  name  Rainulf's  successor,  and 
his  choice  fell  upon  one  of  the  latter's  nephews,  a 
youth  of  great  endowments,  who  unfortunately  died 
almost  immediately  afterwards.  An  attempt  on  the 
part  of  the  people  of  Gaeta  to  make  one  of  the 
Counts  of  Aquino  their  chief  was  crushed  by  Guaimar, 
and  Pandolph  the  Wolf,  seeing  the  county  of  Aversa 
at  odds  with  Salerno,  his  most  dangerous  enemy,  im- 
mediately persuaded  the  former  to  join  him  in  a  fresh 
attack  on  Monte  Cassino.  In  the  meantime  Adenulf 
of  Aquino,  whom  Guaimar  had  taken  prisoner,  be- 
sought the  latter  prince  to  set  him  free,  promising 
that  he  would  immediately  go  to  the  assistance  of  the 
abbey.  Guaimar  agreed,  and  Adenulf  was  received 
with  joy  by  Richer,  who  named  him  protector  of  the 
monastery,  and  presented  him  with  a  splendid  charger, 
a  standard,  and  a  suit  of  armour.  Adenulf,  on  his 
side,  gave  back  to  the  monks  a  golden  chalice  and 
a  rich  cope  which  Pandolph  the  Wolf  had  stolen  from 


The  Normans  159 

the  monastery  and  presented  to  him.  At  first  Pan- 
dolph  refused  to  believe  the  news,  but  on  finding  that 
Adenulf  was  really  at  Monte  Cassino  and  ready  to 
defend  it  he  retired,  leaving  his  adversary  in  possession 
of  Gaeta. 

Even  jiow  the  monks  were  not  out  of  danger,  for  the 
young  Randolph  was  at  large  again,  having  been  liber- 
ated at  the  request  of  Drogo,  Count  of  Apulia,  who 
paid  the  monastery  a  thousand  pieces  of  silver  for  his 
ransom,  and  if  an  early  death  had  not  cut  short  his 
career,  the  young  man  would  probably  have  taken  ven- 
geance for  the  injuries  he  had  suffered  at  the  monks' 
hands.  The  quarrel  about  the  abbey  lands,  however, 
was  at  an  end,  since  the  monastery  had  regained  pos- 
session of  them,  and  the  ground  of  those  differences 
without  which  the  Normans  were  still  unable  to  bear 
the  monotony  of  a  prosperous  existence,  was  now  re- 
moved to  another  matter.  On  the  premature  death  of 
Rainulf's  nephew,  another  of  his  nephews,  also  called 
Rainulf,  and  surnamed  Trincanocte,  claimed  the  county, 
but  fell  into  the  hands  of  Guaimar  of  Salerno,  who  in- 
sisted on  his  right  of  presenting  the  county  to  a  man 
of  his  own  choice.  The  young  Rainulf  was  imprisoned 
in  that  dark  fortress  which  still  hangs  above  Salerno, 
and  to  which  so  many  gloomy  stories  are  attached. 
With  him  there  was  another  Norman  and  two  men  of 
Amalfi.  Before  long  they  gained  the  sympathies  of 
their  jailor,  Martin,  who  allowed  the  Amalfitans  to  send 


160  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

to  Amalfi  for  a  few  measures  of  drugged  wine.  The 
jailor  gave  the  liquor  to  the  soldiers  of  the  guard,  who 
drank  it  and  fell  asleep,  and  he  then  allowed  the  four 
to  leave  the  castle.  Swift  horses,  held  in  readiness  by 
the  men  of  Amalfi,  bore  the  escaped  prisoners  by  the 
pass  of  La  Cava  to  the  strong  castle  of  Maddaloni 
beyond  Naples  on  the  highroad  to  Rome.  Of  course 
the  irrepressible  and  indefatigable  Pandolph  seized  the 
opportunity  of  allying  himself  with  the  young  Rainulf ; 
together  they  drove  Guaimar's  count  from  Aversa  and 
planned  an  attack  upon  Salerno ;  but  their  plans  were 
disconcerted  when  they  learned  that  Drogo  of  Apulia 
was  in  arms  to  help  his  liege  lord,  Guaimar,  and  though 
the  two  armies  came  face  to  face  almost  at  the  foot  of 
Vesuvius,  the  matter  was  brought  to  a  peaceable  con- 
clusion. Drogo  had  the  wisdom  to  intercede  for  Rai- 
nulf with  Guaimar,  who  at  last  consented,  though  much 
against  his  wishes,  to  invest  the  young  man  with  the 
gonfalon  of  Aversa.  Rainulf  Trincanocte  had  gained 
his  end,  but  was  now,  of  course,  Pandolph's  enemy. 
All  these  things  seem  to  have  happened  in  the  year 
1045.  At  the  same  time  the  struggle  in  Apulia  was 
continuing,  and  Argyros  of  Bari  was  badly  beaten  by 
William  Bras-de-Fer  at  Trani.  The  combined  forces 
of  Guaimar  and  of  Bras-de-Fer  had  also  accomplished 
the  difficult  feat  of  marching  down  through  Calabria, 
and  had  built  a  strong  Norman  fort  at  Squillace  on  the 
Gulf  of  Taranto,  almost,  if  not  quite,  in  sight  of  Sicily. 


The  Normans  161 

In  1046,  the  population  of  Apulia  seems  to  have  re- 
volted against  Constantinople,  Argyros  was  replaced 
by  another  catapan,  who  lost  Taranto  or  Trani,  or  both, 
in  the  last  battle  which  William  Bras-de-Fer  was  des- 
tined to  fight.  After  a  career  of  little  more  than  ten 
years,  the  Norman  hero  passed  away,  we  know  not 
exactly  when,  nor  where.  It  is  said  that  he  was  buried 
in  the  Church  of  the  Trinity  at  Venosa,  but  I  believe 
that  no  trace  of  his  tomb  is  to  be  found. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  death  of  such  a  man  in 
such  times  caused  new  trouble,  but  the  Norman  power 
had  already  reached  the  straits,  and  it  was  a  foregone 
conclusion  that  it  should  before  long  embrace  all  the 
south.  Drogo,  who  seems  to  have  been  associated  in 
the  leadership  with  his  brother  William,  succeeded  him, 
and  received  in  marriage  the  daughter  of  Guaimar  with 
a  great  dowry. 

At  this  time  the  troubles  in  which  the  Papacy  was 
involved  by  the  simultaneous  existence  of  three  popes, 
namely,  Benedict  the  Ninth,  Sylvester  the  Third,  and 
Gregory  the  Sixth,  called  for  the  presence  and  inter- 
ference of  the  Emperor  Henry  the  Third,  surnamed 
the  Black.  With  an  energy  remarkable  even  in  those 
times,  the  young  sovereign  descended  into  Lombardy 
at  the  head  of  a  large  army,  held  a  synod  at  Pavia, 
deposed  the  three  popes  by  a  stroke  of  the  imperial  pen, 
and  proceeded  to  Rome.  Without  delay  he  imposed 
upon  the  cardinals  the  election  of  the  German  bishop 

VOL.   II  M 


1 62  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

of  Bamberg  under  the  name  of  Clement  the  Second,  by 
whom  he  immediately  caused  himself  and  his  Empress 
Agnes  to  be  anointed  and  crowned.  His  direct  action 
put  a  stop  to  the  hideous  evils  which  had  begun  during 
the  domination  in  Rome  of  that  extraordinary  woman 
known  as  Theodora  Senatrix,  and  which  had  continued 
under  the  popes  and  princes  of  her  evil  race ;  but  Henry 
the  Black  would  have  done  better  had  he  confirmed 
Gregory  the  Sixth  in  the  Papacy. 

In  1047,  accompanied  by  the  Pope  he  had  made, 
he  marched  southwards  to  Monte  Cassino,  and  was 
received  with  the  highest  honours  in  the  now  pros- 
perous abbey.  At  Capua  he  convoked  the  rulers  of 
the  south,  Guaimar  of  Salerno,  Drogo  of  Apulia, 
Rainulf  Trincanocte  of  Aversa,  Pandolph  the  Wolf, 
and  all  other  lords  who  were  supposed  to  hold  their 
lands  from  the  Empire.  His  intention  was  to  pacify 
and  organize  the  south,  but  he  was  no  longer  dealing 
with  antipopes  and  clergymen ;  he  was  face  to  face 
with  the  strongest  and  most  cunning  men  of  the 
age,  and  with  men,  moreover,  who  now  commanded 
wealth  that  could  dazzle  even  an  emperor.  Pandolph 
brought  such  splendid  offerings  that  Henry  was 
persuaded  to  restore  to  him  the  long-lost  principality 
of  Capua,  to  the  inexpressible  chagrin  of  Guaimar, 
who  had  now  held  it  for  nine  years.  Drogo  and 
Rainulf  prevailed  upon  him  by  presents  to  confirm 
them  in  their  domains  as  imperial  vassals,  thus  liberat- 


The  Normans  163 

ing  them  from  the  suzerainty  of  Guaimar,  who  thereby 
lost  the  title  of  Duke  of  Apulia  and  Calabria.  This 
was  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  the  great  Lombard 
house  of  Salerno. 

Proceeding  on  his  way,  and  accompanied  by  his 
faithful  Pope,  Henry  suddenly  found  himself  opposed 
at  Benevento  by  the  loyalty  of  its  inhabitants  to  the 
now  almost  forgotten  Empire  of  the  East.  Having 
already  sent  back  a  portion  of  his  army  to  Germany, 
Henry  contented  himself  with  burning  the  suburbs 
of  the  city,  and  by  way  of  vengeance,  presented  the 
whole  country  to  the  Normans  on  condition  that  they 
could  take  it.  His  obedient  Pope  then  and  there  excom- 
municated the  entire  population,  and  the  two  departed, 
leaving  the  Normans  to  work  their  will  unhindered. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  Henry's  intentions 
were  good,  but  his  visit  to  the  south  was  the  begin- 
ning of  many  troubles  between  the  Papacy  and  the 
Normans ;  he  certainly  did  wrong  in  restoring  Capua 
to  Pandolph,  and  his  gift  of  Benevento  to  men  who 
had  no  sort  of  claim  to  it  was  most  unjust.  His 
departure  from  Italy  and  the  events  just  narrated 
coincided  very  nearly  with  the  appearance  of  a  new 
and  most  extraordinary  character  upon  the  scene.  It 
was  at  this  time  that  Robert,  afterwards  surnamed 
Guiscard,  the  eldest  son  born  of  the  second  marriage  of 
Tancred  of  Hauteville,  followed  the  example  of  his  elder 
half-brothers  and  came  to  seek  his  fortune  in  Italy. 


164  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

Imitating  the  example  of  the  Abbe  Delarc,  my 
guide  through  the  intricacies  of  this  period  of  history, 
I  shall  quote  here  the  portrait  of  Robert,  which  is 
found  in  the  '  Alexiad '  of  Anna  Comnena,  a  princess 
of  Constantinople. 

"This  Robert  was  of  Norman  origin  and  of  an 
obscure  family ;  he  united  a  marvellous  astuteness  with 
immense  ambition,  and  his  bodily  strength  was  pro- 
digious. His  whole  desire  was  to  attain  to  the  wealth 
and  power  of  the  greatest  living  men ;  he  was  ex- 
tremely tenacious  of  his  designs  and  most  wise  in 
finding  means  to  attain  his  ends.  In  stature  he  was 
taller  than  the  tallest ;  of  a  ruddy  hue  and  fair-haired, 
he  was  broad  shouldered,  and  his  eyes  sparkled  with 
fire ;  the  perfect  proportion  of  all  his  limbs  made  him 
a  model  of  beauty  from  head  to  heel,  as  I  have 
often  heard  people  tell.  Homer  says  of  Achilles  that 
those  who  heard  his  voice  seemed  to  hear  the  thun- 
dering shout  of  a  great  multitude,  but  it  used  to  be 
said  of  this  man  that  his  battle-cry  would  turn  back 
tens  of  thousands.  Such  a  man,  one  in  such  a  position, 
of  such  a  nature,  and  of  such  spirit,  naturally  hated 
the  idea  of  service,  and  would  not  be  subject  to  any 
man ;  for  such  are  those  natures  which  are  born  too 
great  for  their  surroundings. 

"  Being,  therefore,  so  constituted  and  utterly  in- 
capable of  obeying,  Robert  set  out  from  Normandy 
with  five  horsemen  and  thirty  men  on  foot,  all  told, 


The  Normans 


165 


RUINS  OF  THE  ABBEY  AT  MILETO 


and  came  and  lived  in  the  fastnesses  and  caverns  and 
mountains  of  Lombardy  (at  that  time  meaning  Cala- 
bria), supporting  himself  by  robbery  and  plundering 


1 66  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

travellers,  thus  procuring  horses,  necessaries,  and 
arms.  So  the  beginning  of  his  life  was  filled  with 
bloodshed  and  many  murders." 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  after  the  Emperor  Henry's 
departure,  Guaimar  at  once  made  a  vigorous  effort  to 
regain  the  principality  of  Capua;  and  by  the  help  of 
the  Normans  he  took  the  city  and  received  the  submis- 
sion of  the  old  Wolf.  The  two,  however,  soon  quarrelled 
again  concerning  the  person  of  a  certain  Count  of 
Teano  whom  Pandolph  had  long  kept  a  prisoner  and  had 
treated  very  cruelly.  Guaimar  had  caused  him  to  be 
set  at  liberty,  and  Pandolph  now  attempted  to  imprison 
him  again.  Guaimar  again  appealed  to  the  Normans, 
who  responded  to  his  call ;  but  Robert,  who  had 
received  no  favours  from  his  brothers  since  his  appear- 
ance in  Italy,  turned  against  them  and  fought  for 
Pandolph,  who  promised  him  a  castle  and  one  of  his 
daughters  in  marriage.  The  promises  were,  of  course, 
not  fulfilled,  and  Robert  departed,  vowing  the  destruc- 
tion of  Pandolph's  house. 

His  brother  Drogo,  wearied  by  his  importunities,  now 
gave  him  a  small  castle  in  lower  Calabria,  overlooking 
the  valley  of  the  Crati  and  the  site  of  ancient  Sybaris. 
The  place  was  in  a  dangerous  situation,  in  the  heart  of 
an  enemy's  country,  and  Drogo  perhaps  hoped  that  his 
wild  young  brother  would  not  attempt  to  hold  it,  and 
would  leave  Italy  altogether.  But  he  had  misjudged  a 
man  far  greater  than  himself.  Robert  left  the  place 


The  Normans  167 

indeed,  but  only  to  move  up  the  valley  to  the  famous 
rock  of  San  Marco,  where  he  established  himself  and 
led  the  life  of  a  desperate  marauder.  With  the  true 
Norman  instinct,  he  made  friends  also  by  means  of  the 
booty  he  took  from  others.  In  this  way,  besides  his 
own  men,  he  had  a  small  force  consisting  of  a  few 
score  natives,  desperate  ruffians  whose  interests  were 
bound  up  with  his  own.  Once,  being  almost  reduced  to 
starvation,  he  sent  them  out  by  night  on  a  marauding 
expedition,  then  secretly  dressed  himself  like  one  of 
them  and  accompanied  their  march,  lest  the  natives 
should  lead  his  own  men  into  a  trap,  and  he  only 
showed  himself  at  dawn  when  the  fighting  grew  hot ; 
and  he  and  they  brought  home  great  spoil.  The 
careful  chronicler  of  Monte  Cassino,  who  detested  all 
Normans  with  good  reason,  made  an  extraordinarily 
accurate  list  of  Robert's  thefts,  counting  up  a  number 
of  oxen  and  brood  mares,  thirty  head  of  horned  cattle, 
ten  fat  porkers,  and  so  on,  and  adding  that  Robert  used 
to  capture  even  peasants,  whom  he  caused  to  pay 
ransom  in  bread  and  wine.  Furthermore,  the  chroni- 
cler, as  if  speaking  of  a  great  hardship,  says  that 
Robert  was  more  than  once  actually  obliged  to  drink 
pure  water  from  the  spring,  and  that  he  visited  his 
brother  Drogo  again  and  told  him  of  his  great  poverty, 
and  that  what  he  said  with  his  lips  he  showed  in  his 
face,  for  he  was  very  thin. 

A   trick   he  played   upon   a   friend  about  this  time 


1 68  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

describes  the  man  who  was  to  conquer  the  south.  He 
was  on  very  good  terms  with  a  certain  knight,  the  Lord 
of  Bisignano,  a  man  of  considerable  possessions.  One 
day  they  met  by  agreement,  and  Robert  commanded  his 
men  to  halt  at  a  little  distance,  while  he  embraced  his 
friend.  He  embraced  him  indeed,  for  riding  up  to  him, 
he  threw  his  arms  round  him,  brought  him  to  the 
ground,  and  placing  his  knees  upon  his  chest  held  him 
fast,  until  he  promised  to  pay  a  ransom  of  twenty 
thousand  gold  pieces.  While  the  money  was  being 
collected,  he  kept  him  a  close  prisoner  in  San  Marco, 
but  came  to  him  in  his  cell  and  confessed  on  his  knees 
and  in  tears  that  he  had  committed  a  great  sin,  but  that 
his  friend's  wealth  and  his  own  poverty  constrained  him 
to  do  this  deed.  '  Thou  art  my  father,'  he  said,  '  and  it 
is  meet  that  a  father  should  help  his  poor  son,  for  this 
thing  is  commanded  by  the  law  of  the  king,  that  a 
father  who  is  rich  in  all  things  should  succour  the 
poverty  of  his  son.'  When  the  money  was  paid,  and  he 
was  riding  sadly  homeward,  the  Lord  of  Bisignano  must 
have  made  some  curious  reflections  upon  filial  piety, 
and  the  spontaneous  choice  of  parents. 

In  spite  of  such  deeds,  however,  Robert  continued  to 
be  relatively  poor.  He  suddenly  improved  his  fortunes 
by  matrimony.  Being  on  his  way  to  visit  his  brother 
Drogo,  probably  in  the  hope  of  extracting  money  from 
him,  he  was  met  by  a  Norman  kinsman  of  his,  named 
Gerard,  who  appears  to  have  been  the  first  to  appreci- 


The  Normans  169 

ate  qualities  that  were  surprising,  if  not  good,  for  he 
first,  and  on  that  occasion,  addressed  Robert  as  '  Guis- 
card,'  '  the  astute.'  '  O  Guiscard,'  said  he,  '  why  do 
you  thus  wander  hither  and  thither  ?  Behold,  now, 
marry  my  aunt,  the  sister  of  my  father,  and  I  will  be 
your  knight,  and  will  go  with  you  to  conquer  Calabria, 
and  I  will  bring  two  hundred  riders.' 

In  spite  of  Drogo's  strong  objections,  Robert  took 
Gerard's  advice  and  espoused  the  aunt,  of  whom  we 
have,  unfortunately,  no  portrait;  her  name  is  variously 
written  Adverarda  and  Alberada,  and  he  afterwards 
repudiated  her.  Gerard  kept  his  word,  and  with  his 
help  Robert  won  castles  and  towns  and  devoured  the 
land.  » 

At  this  time  a  certain  Richard  of  the  Norman  house 
of  Aversa  appeared  upon  the  scene,  having  been  exiled 
by  the  young  Rainulf  Trincanocte,  who  feared  him  on 
account  of  his  great  popularity.  Coming  to  Apulia,  he 
found  a  friend  in  Humphrey,  but  soon  quarrelled  with 
Drogo.  He  must  have  possessed  very  great  charm, 
together  with  the  gift  of  inspiring  confidence,  for  an  old 
Norman  noble,  the  childless  Lord  of  Genzano  in  Apulia, 
took  him  to  his  heart  and  home  and  made  him  master 
of  all  his  castles.  About  this  time,  also,  old  Pandolph 
the  Wolf  closed  his  chequered  career,  dying  at  the  last 
in  possession  of  his  principality,  and  leaving  it  to  his 
son  ;  and  at  no  great  interval  the  young  Rainulf  of 
Aversa  also  died,  leaving  an  only  son,  who  was  a  mere 


170  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

child.  Richard  of  Genzano  would  very  naturally  have 
seized  Aversa,  where  he  was  beloved  by  the  people,  but 
in  his  quarrel  with  Drogo  the  latter  had  succeeded  in 
imprisoning  him,  and  it  was  not  until  the  people  of 
Aversa  formally  requested  Guaimar  to  make  him  their 
count  that  Drogo  consented  to  set  him  at  liberty,  and 
he  was  invested  with  the  county  by  Guaimar  himself. 
The  south  of  Italy  was  now  divided  between  this 
Norman  Richard  of  Aversa,  the  sons  of  Tancred, 
the  two  Lombard  princes  of  Salerno  and  Capua, 
and  the  Greeks  who  held  Bari  for  the  emperor. 
There  was,  moreover,  the  city  and  country  of  Bene- 
vento,  which  Henry  the  Third  had  given  over  to  the 
Normans,  but  which  before  long,  appealed  to  the 
Pope  for  protection. 

We  must  now  briefly  return  to  the  troubles  in  which 
the  Papacy  was  involved.  Henry  the  Black  had  re- 
turned to  Germany,  and  he  had  left  his  German  Pope, 
Clement  the  Second,  in  Rome.  The  latter  was  alone 
and  without  friends,  and  within  seven  months  the  anti- 
Pope,  Benedict  the  Ninth,  succeeded  in  poisoning  him 
and  in  taking  possession  of  the  Holy  See.  In  the  fol- 
lowing year  the  emperor  sent  a  second  German  Pope  to 
Rome,  under  the  name  of  Damasus  the  Second ;  after 
a  reign  of  twenty-three  days  he  shared  the  fate  of  his 
predecessor,  and  was  buried  also.  Henry  now  held  a 
great  assembly  at  Worms,  the  result  of  which  was  that 
Bruno,  Bishop  of  Toul,  in  Lorraine,  consented  to  go 


The  Normans  171 

to  Rome  and  to  be  made  Pope,  on  condition  that  the 
Roman  clergy  and  people  should  elect  him  of  their  own 
.free  will.  He  arrived,  bringing  with  him  as  a  friend 
and  counsellor  that  famous  Hildebrand  who  long  after- 
wards brought  Henry  the  Fourth  barefooted  in  the  snow 
to  Canossa.  Bruno  was  elected  at  once  and  took  the 
name  of  Leo  the  Ninth. 

At  the  outset  of  his  pontificate  this  Pope  found  him- 
self face  to  face  with  something  like  starvation.  The 
Holy  See  possessed  absolutely  no  source  of  income ; 
the  Pope  had  soon  expended  the  little  ready  money  he 
and  his  friends  had  with  them,  and  before  long  they 
actually  made  arrangements  to  sell  their  vestments  and 
superfluous  clothes  in  order  to  raise  a  little  sum  with 
which  they  might  secretly  return  to  Lorraine.  At  this 
critical  juncture  a  deputation  of  nobles  arrived  from 
Benevento,  bearing  rich  gifts,  and  entreating  the  Pope 
to  revoke  the  excommunication  which  the  emperor  had 
caused  to  be  pronounced  upon  their  city.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  the  Papacy  had  long  laid  claim  to 
Benevento,  rightly  or  wrongly,  and  it  seems  that  the 
people  themselves,  in  spite  of  their  conduct  at  the  time 
of  Henry's  visit,  preferred  to  submit  to  the  authority  of 
the  Papacy  rather  than  to  be  left  a  prey  to  the  Nor- 
mans. Leo  the  Ninth  at  once  undertook  the  journey 
to  the  south,  where  he  was  well  received  by  the  Lom- 
bard princes,  and  a  year  later  he  renewed  his  visit, 
remaining  some  time  in  Benevento.  On  these  occa- 


172  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

sions  he  conceived  a  strong  dislike  for  the  Normans, 
but  on  meeting  the  Norman-  chiefs  at  Monte  Gargano 
he  was  completely  deceived  by  their  promises.  He  did 
not  understand  that  in  taking  possession  of  Benevento 
he  had  set  a  limit  to  the  Norman  conquest  in  a  north- 
ward direction ;  and  when,  after  a  third  visit  to  Bene- 
vento, during  which  he  received  the  most  friendly 
assurances  from  Guaimar  and  Drogo,  the  Normans  in 
the  neighbourhood  rose  and  attacked  the  city,  his  irri- 
tation and  disappointment  knew  no  bounds.  But  the 
messenger  whom  he  sent  to  the  Count  of  Apulia  to 
protest  against  the  outrage  was  met  by  the  news  that 
Drogo  had  been  assassinated. 

The  Italians  of  the  south  had  formed  a  great  con- 
spiracy to  rid  themselves  of  the  Norman  domination  by 
a  wholesale  massacre.  From  Benevento  Drogo  had 
gone  to  the  castle  of  Montolio  in  Apulia,  and  there,  on 
the  tenth  of  August,  being  the  feast  of  Saint  Lawrence, 
he  went  to  mass  in  the  castle  church.  As  he  entered, 
the  murderer  sprang  upon  him  from  behind  the  door 
and  stabbed  him,  and  at  the  same  moment  the  Italians 
in  the  castle  fell  upon  the  unsuspecting  Normans,  and 
killed  many  of  them  before  they  could  defend  them- 
selves. In  many  parts  of  Apulia  the  conspiracy  broke 
out  at  the  same  time,  and  many  Normans  perished,  but 
Humphrey  and  Robert  Guiscard  escaped,  and  swore  a 
great  oath  to  avenge  the  treachery.  So  Humphrey 
became  Count  of  Apulia,  and  Robert  stood  by  him,  and 


The  Normans  173 

they  bound  the  limbs  of  him  who  had  slain  Drogo,  and 
sawed  them  off  one  by  one,  and  because  the  man  still 
breathed  they  buried  him  alive.  The  rest  of  the 
prisoners  they  hanged,  and  these  executions,  says  the 
chronicler,  somewhat  allayed  the  grief  of  Humphrey. 
And  Leo  the  Ninth,  who  had  believed  that  Drogo  was 
his  friend,  sang  a  mass  for  his  soul  that  all  his  sins 
might  be  forgiven  him. 

Drogo  had  undoubtedly  been  the  man  who  might  have 
made  peace  between  the  Papacy  and  the  Normans,  and 
his  death  drove  Leo  the  Ninth  to  make  a  vain  appeal 
to  the  emperor  for  help.  He  was  ready  to  offer  any- 
thing in  his  gift,  temporal  or  spiritual,  to  Henry  the 
Third,  the  King  of  France,  and  the  Duke  of  Marseilles, 
if  they  would  only  help  to  deliver  the  land  from  the 
malice  of  the  Normans.  But  they  were  not  to  be 
moved,  and  in  his  great  need  the  Pope  turned  to  the 
Greeks,  who  still  had  a  foothold  in  Bari  under  the 
Lombard  Argyros.  The  latter  had  returned  from 
Constantinople  in  1051,  bringing  immense  sums  of 
money,  with  which  the  emperor  hoped  that  the  Nor- 
mans might  be  bribed  to  leave  Italy  and  serve  the 
Eastern  Empire ;  but  the  Normans  refused  all  such 
advances  with  scorn,  and  Argyros  was  obliged  to  con- 
tinue the  war  he  had  so  long  waged  at  a  disadvantage. 
Desiring  the  expulsion  of  the  Normans  quite  as  much 
as  Pope  Leo  himself,  he  turned  to  him  spontaneously 
and  met  his  advances  halfway. 


174  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

In  1052,  the  Pope  made  his  first  attempt  at  an  attack, 
and  gathered  some  troops  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Naples,  attempting  at  the  same  time  to  gain  the  alli- 
ance of  Guaimar;  but  the  latter  remembered  that  the 
Normans  had  helped  him  in  many  a  difficulty,  and 
sternly  refused  to  have  anything  to  do  with  such  a  war ; 
the  Pope's  troops  could  no  longer  be  kept  together,  and 
the  Pope  took  refuge  in  Naples.  A  few  weeks  after- 
wards a  frightful  tragedy  changed  the  course  of  events 
in  the  south. 

Guaimar's  wife  was  a  daughter  of  one  of  the  Lom- 
bard counts  of  Teano,  and,  unknown  to  Guaimar,  her 
four  brothers  had  long  been  conspiring  to  seize  his 
throne.  They  drew  into  their  conspiracy  the  people 
of  Amalfi,  who  had  not  lost  the  tradition  of  their  recent 
independence,  and  whom  Guaimar  had  been  obliged  to 
treat  with  severity.  They,  indeed,  began  something 
like  a  regular  war  by  attacking  Salernitan  vessels  on 
the  high  seas,  and  at  last  they  actually  appeared  with 
warships  before  Salerno,  and  effected  a  landing.  Guai- 
mar seized  his  arms  and  rushed  down  to  the  shore  to 
repel  the  attack,  but  his  Salernitan  soldiers  fled  before 
the  determined  Amalfitans,  and  in  a  moment  Guaimar 
found  himself  surrounded  by  his  four  brothers-in-law 
and  a  host  of  conspirators,  who  were  in  reality  in 
league  with  the  men  of  Amalfi.  One  of  the  four 
pierced  the  prince  with  his  lance,  and  the  others 
stabbed  him  at  once.  He  fell  with  thirty-six  wounds, 


The  Normans  175 

and  his  murderers  dragged  his  body  along  the  beach 
with  every  indignity. 

He  was  avenged  within  the  week  by  the  Normans, 
who  not  only  remembered  that  he  had  recently  refused 
to  join  the  Greeks  and  the  Pope  against  them,  but  were 
extremely  anxious  to  maintain  his  dynasty  in  the  prin- 
cipality. In  answer  to  the  appeal  of  his  brother  Guy, 
who  found  some  of  the  Norman  chiefs  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Benevento,  they  hastily  gathered  their 
forces  and  appeared  before  Salerno  five  days  after 
the  murder.  The  city  opened  its  gates  to  them,  but 
the  conspirators  took  refuge  in  the  strong  fortress 
above.  The  Normans  held  the  wives  and  children  of 
the  four  as  hostages  and  consented  to  exchange  them 
and  liberate  them  on  condition  that  they  would  set  free 
Guaimar's  son  Gisulf,  and  solemn  promises  were  given 
that  the  sons  of  the  Count  of  Teano  and  their  accom- 
plices should  be  allowed  to  depart  unhurt.  Guy  prob- 
ably meant  to  keep  his  word,  but  his  Norman  soldiers 
protested  that  they  had  not  given  theirs,  and  falling 
upon  the  fugitives  slaughtered  six  and  thirty  of  them, 
one  for  every  wound  that  had  been  found  in  the  mur- 
dered Guaimar's  body.  The  Duke  of  Sorrento  alone 
was  spared.  With  splendid  good  faith,  considering  the 
times,  Guy  set  his  nephew  Gisulf  upon  the  throne  of 
Salerno,  and  stood  by  him  as  a  loyal  counsellor. 

The  Pope  now  took  advantage  of  circumstances 
which  made  him  a  successful  mediator  between  the 


176  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

King  of  Hungary  and  Henry  the  Third,  to  make  a 
fresh  appeal  to  the  latter,  but  could  obtain  nothing 
except  the  confirmation  of  the  papal  Duchy  of  Bene- 
vento ;  for  although  the  emperor  saw  the  necessity  of 
lending  the  Pope  an  army  wherewith  to  hold  it  against 
the  Normans,  he  could  not  make  up  his  mind  to  do 
so.  Leo  the  Ninth,  with  undaunted  energy,  collected 
a  little  force  of  adventurous  Suabians  and  other  Ger- 
mans, whom  he  led  southwards  with  considerable 
strategic  skill  until  he  had  effected  a  junction  with 
Argyros  of  Bari.  The  hatred  of  the  Normans 
throughout  Italy  was  only  exceeded  at  that  time  by 
the  fear  they  inspired,  and  during  the  Pope's  prog- 
ress a  motley  company  of  irregular  fighters  flocked 
to  his  standard  from  all  parts  of  Italy.  With  the 
exception  of  the  few  Germans  who  had  crossed  the 
Alps  with  him,  his  army  was  chiefly  Italian,  for 
the  Lombards,  who  had  joined  him,  had  long  lost 
their  distinctive  nationality.  Argyros  met  them  in  the 
low  land  not  far  from  Monte  Gargano  and  probably 
within  sight  of  that  famous  place  of  Norman  pilgrim- 
age. The  Normans,  on  their  side,  had  collected 
together  a  little  army.  Robert  Guiscard  had  brought 
up  his  wild  marauders  from  the  furthest  limits  of 
Calabria,  Richard  of  Aversa  was  there  with  his  trained 
men-at-arms,  and  Humphrey  had  called  out  every 
Norman  fighting  man  in  Apulia.  Yet  the  whole 
army  was  so  small  that  before  giving  battle  the  Nor- 


The  Normans  177 

mans  attempted,  with  their  usual  prudence,  to  effect  a 
compromise,  and  sent  messengers  to  the  Pope  suing 
for  peace  and  declaring  that  every  Norman  in  Italy 
was  willing  to  acknowledge  his  authority. 

Leo  the  Ninth  was  in  the  midst  of  the  allied  forces, 
surrounded  by  his  little  band  of  Suabians  and  Ger- 
mans ;  and  they,  in  scorn  of  men  who  fought  on 
horseback  with  pointed  sticks,  laughed  at  the  Nor- 
man messengers  and  constrained  the  pontiff  to  give 
an  overbearing  answer.  The  Normans  were  to  lay 
down  their  arms  and  leave  Italy  at  once ;  if  they  re- 
fused to  do  so  they  should  taste  of  the  long  German 
sword.  They  might  choose  between  instant  destruc- 
tion or  immediate  departure. 

Seeing  that  they  could  obtain  no  terms,  the  messen- 
gers retired,  and  after  a  short  reconnoissance  of  the 
enemy's  position,  the  Normans  gave  battle  on  the  eigh- 
teenth of  June,  1053.  Count  Humphrey  held  the  cen- 
tre, Richard,  with  his  splendid  cavalry,  took  the  right, 
while  Robert  Guiscard  had  the  left  wing.  Richard 
of  Aversa,  as  commanding  the  most  thoroughly  trained 
troops,  made  the  attack,  falling  upon  the  united  force 
of  the  Italians,  says  the  chronicler,  like  a  vulture 
upon  a  flock  of  doves,  and  scattering  them  far  and 
wide  in  instant  panic.  The  Suabians,  on  the  con- 
trary, stood  firm  against  Humphrey's  repeated  charges, 
for  the  struggle  was  between  Teutons  and  Northmen. 
Hand  to  hand  they  fought  with  their  swords,  and 


178  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

the  Germans  learned  that  their  own  were  not  the 
better.  Then  Robert  Guiscard  made  one  of  those 
wild  charges  that  have  often  turned  the  fortunes  of 
war  and  directed  the  course  of  history,  leading  men 
who,  like  himself,  had  little  to  lose  and  all  to  gain. 
The  faithful  Gerard  was  beside  him,  and  together 
they  broke  the  stout  German  ranks.  Robert's  great 
sword  paused  not  in  slaughter,  beheading  men  at  a 
blow  to  right  and  left,  and  inflicting  frightful  wounds. 
Three  times  his  horse  was  killed  under  him  and  three 
times  he  caught  another  and  mounted  again.  The 
huge  Germans  stood  up  to  him  and  his  followers,  and 
died  where  they  stood,  while  the  less  sturdy  Lombards 
fled  from  the  fight,  and  when  the  victory  seemed 
won,  the  wounded  and  mutilated  still  fought  on. 
Meanwhile  Richard  had  returned  from  pursuing  his 
scattered  Italians,  and  came  back  to  strike  the  final 
blow,  and  when  the  battle  was  over  there  was  not  a 
Suabian  nor  a  German  alive  on  the  field. 

The  Pope,  overcome  at  the  sight  of  the  bloodshed  he 
had  caused,  rather  than  disappointed  in  his  hopes,  had 
retired  into  the  neighbouring  town  of  Civitate  and 
watched  the  last  destruction  of  his  army  from  the  ram- 
parts ;  but  the  inhabitants  of  the  little  town,  seeing 
which  way  the  fight  had  gone,  thrust  out  the  venerable 
pontiff  just  as  the  infuriated  Normans  had  set  fire  to 
the  houses  and  sheds  that  stood  outside  the  gate. 
With  sublime  indifference  to  danger,  the  Pope  and  his 


The  Normans  179 

few  attendant  clerks  marched  straight  towards  the 
enemy,  bearing  a  cross  in  their  midst.  It  is  said  that 
as  they  went  towards  the  rising  flames,  a  sudden  breeze 
sprang  up  and  drove  the  fire  back  upon  the  Normans. 
How  this  may  be  we  know  not,  but  it  is  certain  that 
either  on  that  evening  or  on  the  next  day  at  dawn,  Leo 
met  the  Norman  chiefs  face  to  face,  and  he  spoke  to 
them  with  such  eloquence,  so  tenderly  and  yet  so 
strongly,  that  they  were  touched,  and  kneeled  down 
before  him  and  asked  his  blessing,  and,  perhaps  in  one 
of  their  rare  moments  of  sincerity,  they  promised  that 
they  would  be  faithful  to  him,  and  would  take  the  place 
of  his  soldiers  whom  they  had  slain. 

Then  he  caused  the  dead  to  be  buried  hard  by  Civi- 
tate,  and  many  centuries  afterwards  men  saw  the  great 
mound  that  was  raised  above  their  bones ;  and  when 
he  had  said  a  mass  for  the  repose  of  their  souls,  he 
departed  towards  Benevento.  Humphrey  of  Apulia  was 
himself  the  first  to  lead  the  Pope's  escort,  and  many 
hundred  Normans  accompanied  him  to  the  end  of  his 
journey ;  and  though  they  might  well  be  glad  that  they 
were  rid  of  his  army,  there  was  something  not  unchival- 
rous,  after  all,  in  the  reverent  courtesy  they  showed  to 
their  vanquished  and  venerable  foe.  But  at  Benevento 
all  the  people  came  out  to  meet  him,  and  when  they  saw 
the  sad  faces  of  the  bishops  and  clerks  that  were  with 
him,  and  that  he  was  surrounded,  not  by  his  own  army, 
but  by  Norman  knights,  they  all  broke  out  into  cries 


i  So  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

and  lamentations,  which  ceased  not  while  they  led  him 
in  mournful  procession  to  the  church. 

During  about  a  year,  Leo  the  Ninth  remained  in 
Benevento,  still  believing  that  he  might  accomplish  the 
expulsion  of  the  Normans  before  his  death,  for  he  was 
only  about  fifty  years  of  age,  and  we  learn  that  he  at 
this  time  began  the  study  of  the  Greek  language.  But 
he  had  not  long  to  live,  and  his  last  months  were  embit- 
tered and  disturbed  by  theological  controversies  with 
the  East,  which  ended  soon  after  his  death  in  the  final 
separation  of  the  Eastern  and  Western  Churches.  The 
Eastern  emperor  and  the  Pope  were  both  equally  anx- 
ious to  free  Southern  Italy  from  the  Normans,  but  the 
Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  whose  influence  with  the 
people  of  that  city  was  paramount,  and  with  whom 
the  emperor  was  obliged  to  reckon  at  every  turn,  was 
jealous  of  Rome  and  aimed  at  the  absolute  independence 
of  his  patriarchate.  At  that  time  a  correspondence 
which  took  place  between  an  Eastern  and  a  Western 
bishop  concerning  the  use  of  leaven  in  the  consecrated 
bread,  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  and  the  procession  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  from  the  Father  and  the  Son,  was 
placed  in  the  hands  of  Leo  the  Ninth.  He  took  up  the 
matter  and  wrote  a  vigorous  letter  to  the  Patriarch 
Michael,  whom  the  emperor  obliged  to  return  a  meek 
answer  for  the  sake  of  his  own  political  relations  with 
the  Pope.  The  latter  then  sent  three  legates  to  Constan- 
tinople bearing  an  epistle  to  Michael  which  condemned 


The  Normans  181 

the  Eastern  view  of  the  three  mooted  points  in  the  strong- 
est possible  language.  In  spite  of  the  letter  he  had  been 
obliged  to  write,  however,  the  patriarch  successfully 
avoided  a  meeting  with  the  ambassadors,  stirred  up  a 
popular  riot  against  the  emperor,  and  persevered  in  his 
errors.  An  exchange  of  excommunications  and  other 
amenities  at  once  followed,  the  three  legates  excommu- 
nicated the  Patriarch  Michael,  and  the  Patriarch  Michael 
excommunicated  the  three  legates,  who  departed,  shak- 
ing the  dust  from  their  feet.  During  their  absence,  Leo 
the  Ninth  was  taken  ill  and  died  in  the  month  of  April ; 
in  July  his  bull  was  burned  in  Constantinople,  and 
the  permanent  division  of  the  Eastern  and  Western 
Churches,  which  had  begun  with  the  dissension  of  Pho- 
tius  two  centuries  earlier,  became  an  accomplished  fact. 

The  Pope  died  in  April.  He  left  Benevento  in  a 
dying  condition  in  March,  and  was  accompanied  to 
Capua  by  Count  Humphrey  and  the  Normans.  He 
spent  his  last  days  in  Rome  in  visiting  the  Church  of 
Saint  Peter's,  and  in  pious  exhortations  to  his  people 
and  the  Roman  clergy  concerning  the  vanity  of  human 
things,  and  he  departed  from  this  world,  as  he  had  lived 
in  it,  a  very  upright  and  just  man. 

Unsuccessful  though  he  had  been  at  Civitate,  his 
moral  influence  throughout  Italy  had  been  a  check 
on  the  Norman  expansion.  When  he  was  gone,  the 
people  of  Benevento  saw  that  the  Roman  Church 
was  wholly  unable  to  protect  them  against  the  Nor- 


182  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

mans,  who  set  at  naught  the  emperor's  donation  of 
their  city  to  the  popes.  They  were  able  to  resist  a 
siege,  but  restored  the  Lombard  dynasty,  and  Count 
Humphrey  departed  southwards  in  sullen  wrath  to 
wreak  vengeance  upon  the  conspirators  who  had 
slain  Drogo.  There  being  now  neither  papal  nor 
Greek  troops  to  oppose  him,  he  subjected  the  south 
to  a  reign  of  terror,  and  wholesale  executions  of 
Italians,  by  hanging  and  beheading,  avenged  the 
murder  of  Tancred's  son. 

Now  also  came  two  more  of  those  sons,  Geoffrey 
and  a  second  William;  and  Humphrey,  to  establish 
these  two  in  possessions  not  unworthy  to  be  com- 
pared to  his  own,  took  Salerno  from  the  young  Gisulf, 
who  indeed  had  kept  little  faith  with  any  one,  and 
least  of  all  with  his  Uncle  Guy,  to  whom  he  owed 
his  life  and  estate  ;  and  at  the  same  time,  Richard  of 
Aversa  quarrelled  with  him  and  helped  Tancred's 
sons.  Gisulf  himself  was  led  into  an  ambush,  and 
only  escaped  by  throwing  himself  into  the  sea  and 
swimming  for  his  life. 

Meanwhile  Argyros  of  Bari,  who  was  in  bad  odour 
in  Constantinople  since  the  battle  of  Civitate,  was 
unable  to  obtain  help  from  any  one,  and  Humphrey, 
Geoffrey,  and  Robert  Guiscard  inflicted  another  over- 
whelming defeat  upon  him  near  Brindisi.  The  Greek 
cause  was  now  lost  beyond  all  hope. 

The  Normans  quarrelled,  indeed,  among  themselves, 


The  Normans  183 

and  there  is  an  account  of  a  violent  scene  which 
took  place  between  Humphrey  and  Robert  at  dinner, 
but  of  which  the  cause  is  not  known.  In  sudden 
anger  at  something  said  by  Guiscard,  Humphrey 
commanded  him  to  be  thrown  into  prison,  whereupon 
Robert  snatched  up  a  sword  and  made  at  his  brother 
to  kill  him,  but  was  held  fast  by  the  bystanders,  and 
was  actually  kept  a  prisoner  for  a  short  time.  But 
the  brothers  were  soon  reconciled,  and  Humphrey  pre- 
sented his  brother  with  more  lands  in  Calabria,  and 
gave  him,  moreover,  a  number  of  knights.  From 
his  grim  stronghold  of  San  Marco,  whence  he  rav- 
aged the  country  continually,  Robert  was  soon  after 
this  called  to  his  brother's  death-bed,  and  the  dying 
Humphrey,  who  foresaw  that  the  terrible  young  Guis- 
card would  be  his  successor  in  Apulia,  whether  he 
would  or  not,  wisely  made  him  guardian  of  his  son, 
a  lad.  Humphrey  was  buried  with  his  brothers  in  the 
monastery  of  Venosa,  and  the  Guiscard  ruled  in  his 
stead. 

His  first  move  was  upon  Reggio  in  the  Straits  of 
Messina ;  but  it  was  in  vain  that  he  attempted  to 
induce  the  inhabitants  to  acknowledge  his  sovereignty 
without  a  struggle,  and  he  soon  returned  to  Apulia. 
At  this  time  the  youngest  of  Tancred's  sons  joined 
him.  This  was  Roger,  afterwards  the  Great  Count 
and  the  father  of  King  Roger  of  Sicily.  He  seems 
to  have  possessed  an  abundance  of  those  gifts  which 


184  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

distinguished  all  the  brothers.  Handsome,  strong,  and 
active,  his  courage  was  as  remarkable  as  his  astute- 
ness, and  he  was  as  generous  as  any  of  his  elders, 
giving  freely  to  his  friends  all  that  he  could  take 
from  his  enemies.  By  way  of  trying  him,  Robert 
gave  him  sixty  men  and  sent  him  to  fight  the  Cala- 
brians  in  the  southern  mountains  above  Monteleone 
and  Mileto.  In  a  short  time  he  had  made  himself 
the  terror  of  the  surrounding  country,  and  was  able 
to  send  the  Guiscard  a  large  sum  of  money  as  the 
first  fruits  of  his  industry.  He  visited  him  soon 
afterwards,  traversing  the  dangerous  road  with  only 
six  companions,  and  the  two  now  planned  a  sys- 
tematic attack  upon  Reggio ;  but  the  place  was  too 
strong  for  them,  and  they  were  obliged  to  give  up 
the  siege. 

Roger  had  displayed  so  much  courage  and  talent, 
however,  that  the  suspicious  Guiscard  began  to  fear 
in  him  a  dangerous  rival,  and  refused  to  send  him 
money  with  which  to  pay  his  troops.  Without  hesita- 
tion, Roger  now  turned  to  his  brother  William  of 
Salerno,  who  received  him  with  open  arms,  for  he 
also  had  some  cause  of  disagreement  with  the  Guis- 
card; and  he  gave  Roger  the  town  and  castle  of 
Scalea  for  himself,  that  he  might  thence  make  incur- 
sions into  Robert's  territory.  The  latter  lost  no  time 
in  besieging  his  brother,  but  the  place  proved  impreg- 
nable. It  stands  on  the  cape  that  bears  its  name, 


The  Normans  185 

protected  by  the  precipitous  ascent  from  the  danger- 
ous river,  by  the  sea,  and  by  the  high  cliffs,  so  that 
the  only  approach  to  it  can  be  easily  defended. 
Robert  destroyed  the  olives  and  vineyards  in  the  rich 
valley,  but  was  so  harassed  by  the  troops  of  his 
brother  William  that  he  was  obliged  to  retire. 

A  reconciliation  now  followed,  by  which  Robert 
granted  Roger  forty  men-at-arms,  with  permission  to 
commit  unlimited  depredations,  and  for  some  time  the 
younger  brother  consented  to  follow  the  life  of  a  ma- 
rauder, from  which  Guiscard  had  risen  to  such  power. 

During  this  time,  however,  the  latter  needed 
his  services  in  some  expedition,  and  when  he  was 
rewarded  for  two  months  of  hard  fighting  with  the 
present  of  a  single  horse,  he  turned  upon  his  brother 
indignantly,  went  back  to  Scalea,  and  lost  no  time  in 
pillaging  Robert's  lands. 

The  year  1058  was  a  memorable  one  in  the  south  ; 
the  Normans  harried  the  land  without  ceasing,  and 
gave  no  quarter  when  their  demands  were  not  satisfied  ; 
the  crops  had  failed,  and  the  country  suffered  from 
severe  famine,  so  that  the  people  were  reduced  to 
making  bread  of  chestnuts  and  acorns,  and  even  out  of 
reeds  and  aquatic  plants,  and  they  ate  raw  roots,  sea- 
soning them  with  a  little  salt.  Then  an  abundant  har- 
vest followed  the  lean  year,  and  men  died  of  surfeit  as 
they  had  lately  died  of  hunger.  Meanwhile  the  quarrel 
between  Roger  and  Robert  continued,  and  the  Cala- 


1 86  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

brians,  seeing  their  opportunity,  attempted  to  shake 
off  the  Norman  yoke.  The  oppressors  were  treacher- 
ously murdered,  and  in  one  castle  sixty  Normans  were 
massacred  in  a  single  day.  Robert  saw  that  he  was  on 
the  point  of  losing  Calabria  altogether,  while  Apulia 
was  already  on  the  point  of  revolution,  and  making  a 
virtue  of  necessity,  he  sent  ambassadors  to  the  young 
Roger  and  made  peace,  presenting  him  with  a  large 
part  of  southern  Calabria,  from  Mount  Intefoli  and 
Squillace  to  Reggio. 

In  the  meantime  Richard  of  Aversa  had  followed 
the  example  of  Humphrey  and  Robert,  and  had  done 
his  best  to  extend  his  dominions.  The  old  Lombard 
dynasty  had  been  restored  in  Capua,  and  as  the  oppor- 
tunity seemed  favourable  for  seizing  the  principality, 
Richard  marched  against  the  city,  but  being  unable 
to  take  it,  he  systematically  destroyed  the  crops  and 
fruit  trees,  until  the  people  paid  him  six  thousand  gold 
bezants  to  quit  their  territory.  He  did  so  at  the  time, 
but  on  the  death  of  the  prince,  he  returned  with  a 
greater  force  than  before,  and  drove  out  the  prince's 
youthful  successor.  He  now  took  the  title  of  Prince 
of  Capua,  without  consulting  Pope  or  emperor,  and 
immediately  picked  a  quarrel  with  the  Count  of 
Aquino,  to  whose  son  he  had  affianced  his  daughter. 
The  ingenuity  of  the  claim  he  made  was  worthy  of 
a  Norman  and  of  the  times.  The  young  man  died 
before  the  marriage  took  place,  and  thereupon  Richard 


The  Normans  187 

claimed  the  wedding  gift  which,  according  to  the 
Lombard  law,  the  bridegroom  was  bound  to  present 
to  his  bride  on  the  morning  after  the  marriage. 
He  had  the  insolence  to  demand  on  these  grounds  a 
quarter  of  all  the  count's  possessions,  and  on  the  lat- 
ter's  refusal  to  pay  such  a  preposterous  indemnity,  he 
marched  against  Aquino  with  his  army.  It  was  during 
the  siege  that  Richard  paid  a  friendly  visit  to  the 
monks  of  Monte  Cassino ;  and  they,  remembering  the 
days  of  Pandolph  the  Wolf,  received  him  with  hon- 
ours, committing  to  him  the  care  and  defence  of  the 
abbey.  He  was  received  in  procession  as  a  king,  and 
the  church  was  decked  as  for  Easter  Day,  the  lamps 
were  all  lighted,  and  the  cloister  resounded  with 
chanting  and  with  praises  of  the  prince.  Then  he  was 
led  into  the  chapter  house,  and  much  against  his  will 
was  set  in  the  abbot's  throne,  and  the  abbot  knelt 
down  and  washed  his  feet. 

Having  obtained  the  protection  of  the  powerful 
prince,  the  monks  began  to  intercede  with  him  to 
reduce  the  demands  he  was  making  upon  the  Count 
of  Aquino,  and  he  consented  to  do  so ;  but  the  count 
would  not  agree  to  pay  even  the  smaller  sum  required 
until  Richard  had  forced  him  to  make  payment  by 
bringing  ruin  upon  his  possessions.  It  was  about  this 
time  that  William  of  Hauteville  was  engaged  in  the 
conquest  of  Salerno,  and  the  unfortunate  Gisulf  turned 
to  Richard  in  his  need.  Richard  helped  him  at  least 


1 88  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

to  hold  the  city,  in  consideration  of  great  promises,  and 
for  a  short  time  the  Lombard  seems  to  have  recovered 
something  more  than  a  semblance  of  power;  but  he 
worked  his  own  destruction  by  his  refusal  to  keep  his 
word  to  his  ally. 

We  now  reach  that  important  period  at  which  the 
Papacy,  from  having  been  determinately  opposed  to 
the  Normans  of  the  south,  was  driven  to  seek  their 
alliance.  The  death  of  Leo  the  Ninth  was  followed  by 
an  interregnum  that  lasted  about  a  year,  at  the  end  of 
which  time  Henry  the  Black  created  a  Pope  in  the 
person  of  the  Chancellor  of  the  Empire,  who  was  also 
a  bishop,  and  who  reigned  under  the  name  of  Victor 
the  Second.  This  wise  pontiff  began  his  career  by 
making  a  sort  of  truce  with  the  Normans.  A  little 
before  this  time  the  Duke  of  Lorraine,  who  had  been 
despoiled  of  his  possessions  by  Henry  the  Third, 
married  Beatrice,  the  mother  of  the  afterwards  cele- 
brated Countess  Matilda,  and  the  widow  of  the  Marquis 
of  Tuscany,  the  greatest  prince  in  the  north  of  Italy. 
Fearing  lest  the  duke  should  ally  himself  with  the 
Normans,  the  emperor  descended  into  Italy,  in  the  hope 
of  falling  upon  him  unawares ;  but  he  fled,  and  the 
emperor  only  succeeded  in  capturing  his  wife  and 
step-daughter,  whom  he  carried  away  prisoners  to 
Germany.  Pope  Victor  now  found  himself  in  a  most 
difficult  situation.  His  political  judgment  would  have 
led  him  to  seek  the  Norman  alliance,  and  at  the  same 


The  Normans  189 

time  he  received  the  most  bitter  complaints  from  the 
Italians  whom  the  Normans  oppressed  in  the  south. 
In  this  dilemma  Victor  appealed  to  his  friend  the 
emperor,  judging  that  for  the  good  of  the  people,  and 
in  spite  of  his  own  judgment,  it  would  be  better  to 
make  a  final  effort  to  get  rid  of  the  Normans  altogether, 
and  it  was  not  impossible  that  the  emperor  might  have 
been  persuaded  to  undertake  a  war  of  extermination 
against  them  had  he  lived.  But  he  died  in  1056,  after 
a  very  short  illness,  leaving  for  his  successor  Henry 
the  Fourth,  then  a  child  only  five  years  old.  Victor, 
who  had  for  many  years  been  the  great  chancellor 
of  the  Empire,  and  was  familiar  with  all  the  matters 
of  state,  now  took  the  reins  of  government,  and  the 
world  beheld  with  surprise  a  condition  of  affairs  in 
which  the  Pope  of  Rome  ruled  the  Holy  Roman  Em- 
pire as  the  infant  emperor's  guardian.  A  churchman 
of  such  experience  and  of  such  gifts  might  have  suc- 
ceeded in  inaugurating  an  era  of  peace  in  Europe  ;  but 
he  too  was  overtaken  by  an  early  death  soon  after  his 
return  to  Italy.  He  was  immediately  succeeded  by 
Frederick  of  Lorraine,  who  took  the  name  of  Stephen 
the  Ninth,  who  was  the  brother  of  that  Duke  of  Lor- 
raine who  had  now  returned  to  his  great  possessions  in 
Italy  through  the  intervention  of  the  late  Pope,  and 
who,  as  a  friend  of  Leo  the  Ninth,  had  been  one  of 
those  who  most  strongly  urged  that  pontiff  to  make 
war  upon  the  Normans. 


190  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

If  the  pontifical  treasury  had  not  been  in  its  almost 
chronic  state  of  depletion,  the  Normans  might  now 
have  found  themselves  opposed  to  a  really  dangerous 
adversary,  whose  brother  was  the  reigning  sovereign 
over  a  great  part  of  Northern  Italy.  But  Pope  Stephen 
was  without  funds,  and  being  obliged  to  seek  assistance, 
he  meditated  a  truly  gigantic  scheme.  His  plan  was 
undoubtedly  to  ally  himself  with  the  Empire  of  the 
East  as  well  as  with  his  brother,  in  order  to  drive  the 
Normans  from  Italy ;  then  to  set  his  own  brother  upon 
the  throne  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  in  place  of  the 
infant  Henry  the  Fourth,  and,  finally,  to  crush  the 
Eastern  Empire  out  of  existence,  and  to  reestablish 
the  universal  dominion  of  Rome.  His  ambassadors 
were  already  on  their  way  to  Constantinople,  and  in 
conference  with  Argyros  at  Bari,  when  death  overtook 
the  scheming  pontiff,  and  the  ambassadors  returned  to 
Rome. 

A  handful  of  turbulent  Roman  nobles,  in  the  midst 
of  a  frightful  tumult,  and  in  spite  of  the  protestations 
of  many  cardinals,  elected  a  certain  John  of  Velletri 
Pope,  or  rather,  antipope.  He  ascended  the  papal 
throne  under  the  strong  protection  of  the  Roman 
barons  themselves  and  of  a  party  throughout  the 
country  which  demanded  an  Italian  pontiff.  Hilde- 
brand,  that  extraordinary  man  of  strength  and  genius 
who  had  been  the  tried  and  trusted  friend  of  many 
successive  popes,  now  appeared  upon  the  scene  and 


The  Normans  191 

directed  affairs.  Without  hesitation  he  went  directly 
to  Rome,  reassured  the  trembling  cardinals,  declared 
the  election  of  Benedict  the  Tenth  null  and  void,  and 
immediately  sent  an  embassy  to  Germany,  perhaps 
accompanying  it  in  person.  After  a  short  consulta- 
tion, Gerard,  the  Bishop  of  Florence,  was  chosen  to 
be  Pope,  and  the  powerful  Duke  of  Lorraine  and  Tus- 
cany conducted  him  to  Rome,  where  he  was  duly 
elected  and  crowned  under  the  name  of  Nicholas  the 
Second.  In  a  short  time  Hildebrand  had  driven  out 
the  antipope,  Benedict,  and  had  established  Nicholas 
in  comparative  security ;  but  he  now  recognized  the 
great  fact  that  the  Normans  were  the  invincible  rulers 
of  the  south,  and  that  without  them  no  authority  could 
long  hold  its  own  in  Rome.  Accordingly,  and  by  the 
intervention  of  Desiderius,  Abbot  of  Monte  Cassino, 
he  obtained  the  help  of  Richard  of  Capua,  who  ap- 
peared in  the  neighbourhood  of  Rome  with  a  Norman 
army,  and  drove  the  antipope  and  his  friends  to  take 
refuge  in  the  castle  of  Galera,  while,  as  usual,  he 
looted  the  surrounding  country. 

This  Desiderius,  Abbot  of  Monte  Cassino,  whom  the 
Pope  soon  afterwards  created  a  cardinal,  was  a  Lom- 
bard prince  by  birth,  whose  father  had  been  killed  by 
the  Normans,  but  he,  nevertheless,  became  the  inter- 
mediary between  them  and  the  Holy  See,  and  his 
first  friendly  relations  with  them  began  when,  being 
at  Bari,  Robert  Guiscard  lent  him  three  horses  in 


192  The   Rulers  of  the  South 

order  that  he  might  get  back  safely  to  his  abbey. 
Soon  after  the  raid  which  drove  out  Benedict  the 
Tenth,  Pope  Nicholas  held  a  synod  or  council  in  the 
Lateran,  during  which  it  was  determined  that  in  future 
all  popes  should  be  elected  by  the  cardinals  only,  with- 
out consulting  the  nobles  and  the  people,  by  agree- 


HV. 


DOORWAY   OF   THE    ABBEY   AT    MILETO 

ment  with  the  Emperor  Henry  the  Fourth,  who  was 
at  that  time  a  child,  and  of  whose  successors  no  men- 
tion was  made  in  the  decree.  The  independence  of 
the  Holy  See  was  thus  greatly  strengthened,  and 
although  the  dignity  of  the  living  emperor  was  re- 
spected, it  was  'made  clear  that  the  cardinals  did  not 
intend  to  subject  their  choice  to  the  approval  of  the 


The   Normans  193 

emperors  thereafter  succeeding  him ;  it  became,  there- 
fore, more  and  more  necessary  to  strengthen  the 
papal  alliance  with  the  Normans.  Two  months  after 
the  date  of  this  decree,  the  Pope  visited  the  Norman 
capital  of  Apulia,  and  there  held  a  council,  at  which 
a  hundred  bishops  from  all  parts  of  Italy  were  pres- 
ent, and  at  which  a  number  of  Norman  nobles  as- 
sisted ;  and  in  order  to  be  present  the  Guiscard  was 
obliged  to  leave  to  his  lieutenants  the  conduct  of  the 
siege  of  Cariati.  When  certain  ecclesiastical  ques- 
tions had  been  settled,  the  Pope  received,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  council  of  Melfi,  the  homage  and  oath  of 
fealty  of  Duke  Robert.  In  taking  this  oath,  the  Nor- 
man styled  himself  '  Robert,  by  the  grace  of  God  and 
of  Saint  Peter,  Duke  of  Apulia  and  of  Calabria,  and 
future  Duke  of  Sicily  by  their  aid ' ;  and  he  promised 
to  pay  yearly  to  Saint  Peter,  and  to  Pope  Nicholas  his 
lord,  and  to  his  successors,  to  his  nuncios,  and  to  the 
nuncios  of  his  successors,  the  yearly  tribute  of  twelve 
deniers  of  Pavia  for  each  yoke  of  oxen  in  his  posses- 
sion. Furthermore,  he  swore  to  be  faithful  to  the 
Roman  Church,  and  to  Pope  Nicholas  his  lord ;  never 
to  take  part  in  any  conspiracy  '  which  could  endanger 
the  Pope's  life,  limbs,  or  liberty  '  ;  never  to  divulge 
any  secret  the  Pope  might  confide  to  him ;  and  to  be 
everywhere  and  against  all  comers  the  ally  of  the 
Holy  Roman  Church. 

It   appears   probable   that    Richard  of   Aversa  took 
VOL.  n  o 


194  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

the  same  oath  with  the  same  obligations,  and  by  this 
treaty  of  Melfi  those  men  whom  the  predecessors  of 
Nicholas  had  attempted  to  treat  as  a  handful  of  ex- 
communicated adventurers  became  the  authorized  allies 
and  representatives  of  the  Roman  Church  in  the  south 
of  Italy.  This  was  the  work  of  Hildebrand,  and  was 
a  formidable  move  against  the  arrogance  of  the  Roman 
barons.  It  inaugurated  a  new  era  of  the  Papacy, 
and  when  the  Pope  returned  to  Rome,  he  appeared 
at  the  head  of  a  Norman  army.  Peaceably,  and  in 
good  order,  the  force  marched  up  through  Campania  ; 
but  when  they  reached  the  Roman  territory  the  storm 
broke  with  disastrous  fury.  In  a  few  days  the  country 
about  Rome  was  reduced  to  a  total  desolation,  the 
Roman  counts  were  forced  to  surrender  and  make 
submission  to  the  Church,  the  host  crossed  the  Tiber 
and  fell  upon  the  castle  of  Galera,  in  which  Benedict 
the  Tenth  had  taken  refuge.  The  remains  of  those 
war-worn  walls  are  standing  still,  in  the  midst  of  a 
fever-haunted  wilderness,  and  it  was  from  their  ram- 
parts that  Benedict  the  Tenth,  looking  out  towards 
the  city  and  solemnly  raising  his  hands  to  heaven, 
cursed  the  Roman  people  aloud  because  they  had 
made  him  Pope  against  his  will ;  and  he  promised  'to 
renounce  his  claim  to  the  pontificate  if  his  own  safety 
were  assured  ;  and  so  he  did,  for  he  laid  down  the 
pontifical  insignia  and  came  back  and  lived  in  the 
house  of  his  mother  in  Rome.  Then  Nicholas  departed 


The  Normans  195 

with  his  army,  and  though  the  Campagna  was  laid 
waste,  the  power  of  the  robber  barons,  who  had  lived 
by  plundering  every  little  train  of  merchants  that 
attempted  to  reach  the  city,  was  broken  forever. 

Thenceforward  the  Guiscard's  conquest  of  the  south 
proceeded  almost  unresisted,  but  his  career  was  momen- 
tarily checked  by  an  insurrection  in  Melfi  itself,  which 
had  the  courage,  or  insolence,  to  close  its  gates  against 
him.  Robert  at  once  began  the  systematic  destruction 
of  crops  by  which  he  had  reduced  so  many  strong 
places,  Melfi  opened  its  gates  again,  and  the  leader 
of  the  revolt  was  hunted  from  place  to  place,  a  lonely 
and  disappointed  fugitive. 

At  this  time  Robert  repudiated  his  wife,  by  whom  he 
was  the  father  of  an  only  son,  who  afterwards  became 
the  famous  crusader,  Bohemund  of  Antioch.  The 
popes  had  recently  forbidden  all  marriages  within 
the  seventh  degree  of  consanguinity,  and  Robert  sud- 
denly discovered  that  his  friend  Gerard's  aunt  was 
too  near  a  kinswoman  of  his  own  to  remain  his  wife. 
He  presented  her  with  rich  gifts,  therefore,  and  put 
her  away ;  and  almost  on  the  morrow  he  asked  the 
hand  of  Sigelgaita,  elder  sister  of  Gisulf  of  Salerno. 
That  prince  still  retained  a  semblance  of  sovereignty, 
in  spite  of  William  of  Hauteville's  conquest,  and  Robert 
easily  persuaded  him  to  consent  to  his  sister's  mar- 
riage in  return  for  help  against  his  spoliator.  Robert 
kept  his  word,  and  reinstated  Gisulf  in  most  of  his 


196  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

possessions,  and  though  the  latter  of  course  did  his 
best  to  break  his.  promises,  he  was  obliged  to  submit, 
and  Robert's  position  was  strengthened  by  an  alliance 
with  the  most  illustrious  Lombard  family  in  Italy. 

In  1060,  Robert  took  the  strong  town  of  Taranto, 
and  in  concert  with  Roger  besieged  Reggio,  where 
the  Greek  catapan,  upon  whom  Constantinople  be- 
stowed the  proud  title  of  Duke  of  Italy,  had  taken 
up  his  residence.  Here  Robert  slew  in  single  combat 
a  huge  knight  who  defied  all  the  Normans  together, 
and  when  the  people  of  the  city  saw  the  great 
engines  which  the  Guiscard  was  preparing  for  their 
destruction,  they  made  terms  of  peace  and  capitulated. 
The  Greek  troops  took  refuge  in  a  castle  perched  upon 
the  tremendous  rock  of  Scylla,  but  soon  lost  courage, 
abandoned  the  place  by  night,  and  sailed  away  to 
Constantinople. 

Roger  occupied  the  fortress  without  delay,  and 
gazed  from  its  ramparts  upon  the  great  jewel  of  the 
south.  It  lay  there  like  a  new  world,  divided  from 
him  by  the  narrow  strait  in  which  the  ancients  had 
seen  unearthly  terrors,  but  which  to  the  fearless  Nor- 
man seemed  as  easy  to  cross  as  any  river.  There 
were  men  with  him  and  with  his  brother  who  had 
doubtless  fought  before  Syracuse  and  at  Troina  with 
Bras-de-Fer  and  Ardoin  twenty-one  years  earlier,  and 
they  had  told  what  they  had  seen,  and  doubtless,  too, 
their  descriptions  of  the  island's  wealth  had  gathered 


MESSINA 


196 

p 

t 

2  ,uo"n  was  strengthened  by  ;m  alliance 

wit  most  illustrious  Lombard  family  in  Italy. 

:    took  the  strong  town  of  Taranto, 

c 

t 

stowed  the    proud   title  of    Duke  of    Italy,  had  taken 

up  his  reside  in- single  combat 

a   huge   knights  the  Normans  together, 

; 

( 

( 

The  Greek  troops  took  ictu^c  •;;  ^  ...  iu-d  upon 

1 

i 

( 

or  .iout    delay,    a«d 

:  .-..:.  jewel  of  the 

:  then         ;  a  new  wo-  .^d  from 

him  by  the  narrow  strait  in  which  the  ancients  had 
seen  unearthly  terrors,  but  which  to  the  fearless  Nor- 
man seemed  as  easy  to  cross  as  any  river.  There 

men  with  him  and  with  his  brother  who  had 
doubtless  fought  before  Syracuse  and  at  Troina  with 
Bra$-de-Fer  and  Ardoin  twenty-one  years  earlier,  and 

they  had  told  what-^ty  had  seen,  and  doubtless,  too, 

j 

their  descriptions  of  the  island's  wealth  had  gathered 


The  Normans  197 

richness  in  the  repetition  of  long  years.  And  those 
lordly  mountains,  ranging  hand  in  hand  southward  to 
the  dome  of  snow-capped  Etna,  were  not  only  the 
guardians  of  rich  valleys  and  fertile  plains  within, 
but  they  were  also  the  ramparts  of  a  prison  house 
in  which  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Christian  men 
laboured  in  captivity  under  the  Moslem  rule.  There 
was  enough  there  to  stir  the  adventurous  spirits  of 
men  who  were  half  Christian  knights  and  still  half 
barbarous  marauders. 

In  the  month  of  August  of  the  year  1060,  three 
Christian  merchants  of  Messina  left  their  city,  pretend- 
ing that  they  were  bound  to  Trapani,  but  they  put  about 
at  nightfall,  and  came  to  Roger  at  Mileto  and  entreated 
him  to  come  over  and  free  their  city  from  the  Moslems. 
Roger  believed  that  they  were  the  representatives  of 
the  whole  Christian  population,  and  he  answered  that 
he  would  come  quickly ;  but  the  three  Christians  sailed 
back  to  Messina,  and  when  they  entered  the  harbour, 
the  headless  bodies  of  twelve  of  their  friends  were 
hanging  from  the  walls,  for  the  Saracens  had  suspected 
their  conspiracy. 

To  effect  the  conquest  of  Sicily,  Roger  took  sixty 
knights  with  him,  crossed  the  straits,  and  landed  near 
the  lagoons  of  Faro.  Instead  of  being  received  by  the 
whole  Christian  population  in  revolt,  the  Saracens  came 
out  horse  and  foot  to  destroy  the  handful  of  invaders. 
But  Robert  pretended  fear  and  flight,  and  suddenly, 


198  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

when  the  enemy  was  in  hot  pursuit,  he  halted  his  men 
and  turned  short  round,  and  fought  for  his  life  ;  and 
when  the  Normans  had  slain  a  great  number  of  the  foe, 
and  the  rest  had  fled  in  panic,  he  took  the  enemy's 
riderless  horses  and  stripped  the  rich  armour  off  the 
fallen  dead,  and  sailed  back  that  day  to  Reggio ;  and 
surely  it  was  as  daring  a  deed  as  ever  Northman  did 
before  or  since. 

At  the  very  time  when  Roger  was  making  his  reck- 
less raid  in  Sicily,  the  Greeks  were  preparing  a  final 
expedition  to  recover  the  lost  south.  A  general  called 
Abul  Kare,  probably  a  converted  Moslem,  organized  a 
large  army  on  the  eastern  shores  of  the  Adriatic,  and 
crossed  to  Bari.  The  Norman  troops  were  almost  all 
concentrated  at  the  opposite  extremity  of  Calabria,  and 
when  Duke  Robert  faced  his  new  adversary,  with  a 
handful  of  hastily  collected  troops,  he  was  obliged  to 
fall  back  to  escape  destruction,  so  that  in  two  months 
Abul  Kare  succeeded  in  retaking  Taranto,  Brindisi,  and 
Otranto.  He  even  advanced  as  far  as  Melfi  and  laid 
siege  to  the  Norman  capital,  a  fact  which  proves  that 
even  the  Guiscard  had  been  taken  altogether  unawares. 
As  soon,  however,  as  Robert  and  Roger  were  able  to 
unite  their  forces  and  make  an  organized  resistance, 
the  Greeks  were  obliged  to  give  way,  Abul  Kare  was 
driven  back  as  quickly  as  he  had  advanced,  and  before 
•  long  his  temporary  presence  in  Italy  had  ceased  to 
cause  the  Normans  any  apprehension. 


The  Normans  199 

Roger  now  turned  his  thoughts  to  Sicily  again,  and 
an  opportunity  for  making  another  expedition  presented 
itself  almost  immediately.  A  certain  Ibn-at-Timnah, 
against  whom  another  chief,  Ibn-al-Hawwas,  had  vowed 
vengeance,  came  to  Roger  at  Mileto  and  proposed  to 
him  a  joint  conquest  of  Sicily.  This  was  the  origin  of 
that  good  understanding  which  afterwards  existed  be- 
tween the  Normans  and  one  party  of  the  Sicilian  Sara- 
cens, for  Roger  accepted  the  proposal  and  soon  embarked 
with  a  hundred  and  sixty  knights  and  Ibn-at-Timnah. 
They  landed  to  the  west  of  Messina,  with  the  intention 
of  passing  by  the  city  in  order  to  gain  the  interior. 
Riding  at  night  towards .  Milazzo,  Roger  suddenly  saw 
before  him  in  the  moonlight  a  Saracen  in  full  armour, 
and  though  he  was  armed  only  with  his  sword  and 
shield,  he  rode  at  him  instantly.  The  chronicle  says 
that  the  Saracen  fell  from  his  horse,  literally  cut  in  two 
pieces ;  and  when  the  body  was  examined,  it  was  found 
to  be  that  of  Ibn-at-Timnah's  bitterest  enemy,  no  other 
than  that  of  the  man  who  had  married  his  much-injured 
wife. 

Roger  reached  Milazzo  without  further  interruption 
and  collected  much  valuable  booty,  which  he  brought 
back  to  Faro  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  small  salt 
lagoons,  and  though  the  Saracens  very  nearly  surrounded 
him  while  he  was  waiting  for  a  favourable  wind,  he  got 
the  advantage  by  a  brilliant  movement  and  put  them  to 
flight.  Encouraged  by  this  success,  he  was  rash  enough 


2OO  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

to  turn  again  and  attack  the  city  of  Messina ;  but  he 
was  driven  back  to  his  ships  by  overwhelming  numbers, 
and  was  obliged  to  stand  at  bay  during  three  whole 
days  and  nights  until  the  weather  moderated.  Amari 
is  of  opinion  that  this  desperate  stand  was  made  on 
what  is  now  called  the  Braccio  del  Salvatore,  which  is 
the  extremity  of  the  sickle  that  forms  the  natural  har- 
bour of  Messina ;  but  it  appears  improbable  to  me  that 
so  small  a  force  should  not  have  been  driven  bodily  into 
the  sea  from  such  a  point ;  it  is  impossible  to  lie  at 
anchor  with  ships  outside  that  point  in  heavy  weather, 
and  lastly,  Roger  could  not  have  reached  it  with  the 
booty  which  he  ultimately  carried  away,  unless  he  had 
passed  through  the  city  which  he  had  failed  to  take. 
He  must,  therefore,  have  made  his  stand  on  the  narrow 
strip  of  land  which  separates  the  lagoons  from  the  sea, 
which  could  be  easily  defended,  and  within  the  curve  of 
which  small  vessels  such  as  he  had  can  lie  with  toler- 
able safety  during  most  storms.  Here,  being  in  the 
last  extremity,  Roger  vowed  to  restore  a  ruined  church 
dedicated  to  Saint  Anthony,  near  Reggio,  and  as  the 
weather  then  moderated,  he  embarked  and  succeeded 
in  reaching  the  opposite  shore  in  safety,  in  spite  of  an 
attack  made  upon  him  by  Saracen  vessels.  He  lost, 
besides  one  of  his  small  ships,  eleven  men  killed  by 
arrows,  and  the  news  of  this  loss  was  enough  to  decide 
Robert  Guiscard  to  join  in  the  great  enterprise.  He 
called  together  a  council  of  knights  and  announced  his 


The  Normans  201 

intention  of  delivering  all  Catholic  Christians  from 
the  Moslem  bondage  ;  and  the  knights  answered  that 
they  would  do  battle  with  him  for  that  cause,  and  prom- 
ised by  the  help  of  God  to  subdue  the  Saracens,  and 
they  received  grace  and  gifts  of  the  lord  duke. 

In  the  early  days  of  May  in  the  same  year  1061, 
Robert  Guiscard  encamped  opposite  the  Faro  with 
an  army  which  the  chronicle  calls  numerous,  and 
which  seems  to  have  consisted  of  about  a  thousand 
fighting  men.  But  Ibn-al-Hawwas  was  before  him, 
and  sent  from  Palermo  a  fleet  of  twenty-four  ves- 
sels with  eight  hundred  soldiers  to  protect  Messina. 
Robert  and  Roger  solemnly  invoked  the  help  of 
heaven,  confessed  and  received  communion,  and  vowed 
to  live  more  Christian  lives,  introducing  in  their  prayers 
the  truly  Norman  stipulation  that  the  Almighty  should 
crown  their  expedition  with  success.  Roger  took  two 
ships,  and  in  spite  of  the  Saracen  fleet,  reconnoitred 
the  Sicilian  coast,  easily  outsailing  his  adversaries ; 
and  on  his  return  Robert  determined  to  send  a  part 
only  of  his  force  in  advance.  Roger  landed  two 
hundred  and  seventy  chosen  men  at  the  limekilns,  six 
miles  south  of  Messina,  and  daringly  sent  his  ships 
back  to  Reggio,  in  order  that  his  men  might  under- 
stand that  they  were  to  win  or  die.  Riding  fearlessly 
towards  Messina,  they  came  upon  a  Saracen  detach- 
ment bringing  large  sums  of  money,  and  having. slain 
the  soldiers  and  taken  the  booty,  they  joyously  pursued 


2O2  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

their  way.  They  had  not  ridden  far  when  they  saw 
their  Norman  ships  sailing  back  again,  and  were  joined 
by  a  hundred  and  seventy  more  of  their  knights.  This 
time  the  number  sufficed ;  four  hundred  and  forty 
Normans  took  Messina  almost  without  striking  a  blow. 
Many  of  the  inhabitants  followed  the  Moslem  soldiers 
in  their  flight,  and  on  the  steep  hillside  that  overlooks 
the  straits  a  tragedy  took  place  which  the  chronicler 
thought  worth  recording.  A  young  Saracen  of  very 
noble  birth  had  escaped  with  his  only  sister,  a  girl 
of  the  most  incomparable  beauty.  Delicately  nurtured, 
and  unused  to  walking,  she  was  soon  exhausted  and 
half  fainting  with  fatigue  and  terror.  Tenderly  her 
brother  entreated  her  to  take  courage,  and  he  helped 
her  and  carried  her  as  far  as  he  could ;  then,  seeing 
that  she  could  not  be  saved  from  rude  Christian  hands, 
he  drew  his  sword  and  killed  her,  and  left  her  dead 
upon  the  hillside.  So  he  went  on  his  way,  weeping 
and  vowing  vengeance. 

Now  came  the  Guiscard  himself  and  landed  in  Mes- 
sina with  all  his  force.  He  held  the  key  of  Sicily,  but 
he  hesitated  to  unlock  the  gate  until  he  had  fortified 
the  city  itself  and  got  possession  of  the  formidable 
stronghold  of  Rametta.  He  took  the  latter  without 
striking  a  blow,  for  the  terror  of  the  Norman  name 
was  in  the  air,  and  the  Saracens  either  surrendered 
or  fled.  Turning  inland  when  he  was  sure  of  his 
retreat,  Robert  went  up  the  Val-Demone,  where  there 


The  Normans  203 

were  many  Christians  who  received  him  as  their  saviour 
and  liberator.  Wherever  he  found  a  strong  place  to 
take  which  would  cost  him  some  loss,  he  passed  it 
by  and  went  on,  and  the  Normans  ravaged  the  country 
like  locusts,  and  the  Saracens  fled  before  them. 

At  last  he  came  to  that  great  plain  whence  the  twin 
strongholds  of  Castrogiovanni  and  Calascibetta  rise 
side  by  side  like  brother  Titans ;  and  the  Normans 
were  seven  hundred  men,  but  within  Castrogiovanni 
there  were  fifteen  thousand  Saracen  riders.  So  Robert 
comforted  his  companions  in  arms  and,  looking  up 
at  the  fearful  height,  he  told  them  how  Christ  had 
said  that  if  a  man  have  faith  like  a  grain  of  mustard 
seed  he  can  remove  mountains ;  and  the  Normans 
confessed  their  sins  and  raised  the  gonfalon  and  began 
to  accomplish  the  impossible.  The  Moslems  charged 
down  furiously,  but  neither  numbers,  nor  weight,  nor 
sword,  nor  lance  availed  them,  and  the  Northmen 
forced  them  bodily  up  the  frightful  steep,  slaying 
them  and  climbing  upon  their  bodies ;  and  the  rocks 
ran  blood  in  rivulets ;  and  of  fifteen  thousand  Moslems 
who  had  ridden  out,  five  thousand  beaten  men  got 
back  alive  within  the  impregnable  walls. 

Sagely  Robert  left  them  within,  for  he  would  not 
waste  men  and  steel  upon  the  huge  ramparts ;  but  he 
destroyed  the  crops  and  the  fruit  trees  and  drove  off 
the  cattle  and  encamped  by  the  shores  of  that  fair 
lake  by  which  Persephone  had  strayed  in  the  days 


204  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

of  the  gods.  But  by  and  by  he  quietly  took  possession 
of  Calascibetta,  and  thither  the  frightened  Saracens 
came  up  with  presents  and  prayers  for  mercy,  their 
heads  bowed,  and  their  hands  crossed  upon  their 
breasts.  Thither,  too,  the  Moslem  admiral  of  Palermo 
sent  him  rich  presents,  wearing  apparel  embroidered 
in  the  Spanish  fashion  and  much  fine  linen,  vessels 
of  gold  and  silver,  and  mules  in  royal  caparison ; 
and  he  sent  also  a  purse  in  which  there  was  gold 
worth  twelve  thousand  pounds  of  English  money. 

Robert  now  sent  an  ambassador  to  Palermo,  and 
he  chose  for  this  purpose  a  certain  deacon  who  spoke 
Arabic,  enjoining  upon  him  to  keep  his  knowledge  of 
the  language  a  secret.  So  this  man  spied  out  the  land 
and  brought  much  precious  information,  and  told  Robert 
that  the  people  of  Palermo  were  but  a  body  without  a 
soul.  But  Robert,  seeing  the  strength  of  Castrogiovanni, 
knew  that  he  could  not  take  it  with  the  few  men 
he  had,  so  he  went  back  to  Messina  with  his  vast 
booty,  and  three  months  had  passed  since  Roger  had 
landed  with  the  advanced  guard.  Messina,  Rametta, 
San  Marco,  and  all  the  Val-Demone  were  subject  to  the 
Normans  now,  and  Ibn-at-Timnah,  their  firm  ally,  was 
established  in  Catania. 

Robert  Guiscard  and  Sigelgaita  returned  to  Apulia  in 
the  autumn  of  1061,  and  Roger,  after  a  short  stay  at 
Mileto,  crossed  into  Sicily  again  with  a  small  force 
and  harried  the  Moslem  lands  as  far  as  Girgenti. 


The  Normans  205 

Returning  towards  Messina  he  came  to  the  strong 
Greek  city  of  Troina,  and  the  inhabitants,  who  seem 
to  have  been  almost  entirely  Christians,  opened  their 
gates  and  received  him  with  enthusiasm.  This  place 
was  destined  to  play  an  important  part  in  the  life  of 
the  young  conqueror.  It  stands  upon  the  table-like 
summit  of  a  steep  mountain  almost  three  thousand  feet 
high  ;  it  is  often  hidden  from  the  surrounding  country 
by  clouds,  and  is  excessively  cold  in  winter,  when  snow 
and  ice  sometimes  lie  on  the  ground  for  weeks.  The 
town  itself  is  dominated  by  a  strong  citadel,  from  the 
towers  of  whi^h  most  of  the  principal  cities  and  for- 
tresses of  Sicily  are  visible  in  clear  weather. 

Resting  here,  Roger  learned  that  the  lovely  daughter 
of  William  of  Evreux,  with  whom  he  is  said  to  have 
fallen  in  love  on  his  way  to  Italy,  had  arrived  in 
Calabria  and  was  ready  to  marry  him.  Judith  of 
Evreux  was  the  great  granddaughter  of  Richard  the 
First  of  Normandy,  and  had  just  escaped  from  that 
country  with  her  sister  and  half  brother,  the  latter 
having  for  some  reason  incurred  the  dangerous  wrath 
of  William  who  was  soon  to  be  called  the  Conqueror. 
Judith  is  now  believed  to  have  been  the  same  person  as 
Eremberga,  and  to  have  adopted  the  latter  name  when 
she  left  the  convent  in  which  she  was  brought  up. 

Roger  lost  no  time,  but  returned  instantly  to  Mileto 
and  was  married  with  all  the  pomp  he  could  afford.  A 
few  weeks  later  he  left  his  young  wife  behind  him  and 


2O6 


The  Rulers  of  the  South 


returned  to  Messina.  The  chronicler  says  that  she 
shed  many  tears,  the  memory  of  which  perhaps  moved 
Roger  to  take  her  with  him  on  his  next  expedition. 
On  the  present  occasion  he  succeeded  in  getting  pos- 


1 


RUINS   AT    M1LKTU 


session  of  a  fortress  on  the  northern  coast  near  Cefalu, 
while  Ibn-at-Timnah  pursued  the  civil  war  he  was 
waging  on  his  own  account,  and  much  to  Roger's  advan- 
tage. It  was  now  that  Roger  first  placed  a  Norman 
garrison  in  Troina,  but  the  treacherous  assassination  of 


The  Normans  207 

Ibn-at-Timnah  near  Corleone  soon  rendered  the  posses- 
sion of  such  isolated  garrisons  very  unsafe,  and  in 
Roger's  absence  they  hastened  back  to  Messina. 

A  deadly  quarrel  now  broke  out  between  Roger  and 
the  Guiscard,  who  had  refused  to  hand  over  to  his 
brother  the  lands  he  had  promised  him  in  the  treaty  the 
two  had  made  at  Scalea.  Roger  was  the  more  exasper- 
ated because  he  was  thus  prevented  from  making  a 
suitable  marriage  gift  to  his  young  wife,  and  he  deter- 
mined to  take  by  force  what  was  indeed  his  by  right. 
In  one  of  the  first  encounters  a  half  brother  of  Judith 
was  thrown  from  his  horse  in  the  charge  and  killed, 
and  Roger's  anger  rose  to  the  pitch  of  fury.  Robert 
now  besieged  him  in  Mileto  and  built  two  rude  castles, 
one  at  each  extremity  of  the  city.  Roger  responded 
by  invariably  attacking  the  one  when  he  was  informed 
that  Robert  was  in  the  other,  and  as  Robert  was 
obliged  to  ride  round  the  city,  while  Roger  could 
traverse  it  in  a  straight  line,  the  advantage  always  fell 
to  the  latter. 

One  night  Roger  took  a  hundred  men  and  rode  down 
to  the  city  of  Gerace,  which  owed  allegiance  to  Robert, 
but  promptly  opened  its  gates  to  the  younger  brother 
and  provided  him  with  means  for  carrying  on  the  war. 
Robert  therefore  left  a  part  of  his  troops  before  Mileto 
and  laid  siege  to  Gerace ;  but  being  unable  to  take  it  at 
once,  he  resorted  to  stratagem,  entered  the  city  alone, 
disguised  in  a  cloak  and  hood,  and  went  to  the  house 


208  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

of  one  Basil,  a  man  whom  he  could  trust.  While  he 
was  talking  with  Basil's  wife  Mileta,  before  dinner,  a 
servant  betrayed  his  presence  ;  instantly  the  city  was 
in  an  uproar,  and  an  infuriated  multitude  beat  down 
the  doors  of  the  house ;  Basil  got  out  and  tried  to  take 
sanctuary  in  a  church,  but  was  cut  to  pieces  before 
he  could  reach  the  door;  the  unfortunate  woman  was 
dragged  out  and  impaled  alive  on  a  stake  to  die  in 
agony,  and  Duke  Robert,  with  his  hood  thrown  back, 
faced  the  multitude  alone  and  unarmed. 

His  natural  intrepid  coolness  did  not  forsake  him ; 
he  saw  that  he  must  win  the  crowd  by  gentle  words 
or  die,  and  his  eloquence  saved  his  life.  With  the 
utmost  skill  he  laid  his  case  before  those  who  thirsted 
for  his  blood.  He  had  come  to  them  unarmed  and 
of  his  own  accord,  he  said,  to  them  who  had  sworn 
to  be  his  faithful  subjects.  It  would  be  a  shameful 
thing  for' thousands  to  tear  a  single  unarmed  man  to 
pieces,  but  they  might  do  it  if  they  chose,  for  there 
he  stood  in  their  midst.  They  would  get  no  glory 
for  such  a  deed,  nor  would  it  free  them  from  the  Nor- 
man yoke ;  he  had  brothers,  friends,  an  army  of  sol- 
diers at  their  gates,  and  did  they  think  the  Normans 
would  not  avenge  the  shedding  of  Norman  blood  ? 

He  persuaded  them  to  spare  his  life,  but  not  to 
give  him  his  liberty,  and  from  the  threshold  of  his 
dead  friend's  ruined  home  the  great  duke  was  led 
away  and  thrust  into  prison.  Roger  soon  learned 


The  Normans  209 

what  had  happened,  and  he  came  into  the  city  with 
his  men  and  bade  the  people  give  him  his  brother, 
who  was  his  enemy,  bound  hand  and  foot ;  for  he 
would  slay  him  with  his  own  sword.  But  when  the 
brothers  were  alone,  they  fell  into  one  another's  arms, 
says  the  chronicler,  and  embraced  one  another  like 
Joseph  and  Benjamin  of  old  —  an  affectionate  effusion 
which  did  not  prevent  them  from  renewing  their  quar- 
rel. It  ended  only  when  the  danger  of  a  general  ris- 
ing in  Calabria  brought  the  brothers  to  their  senses. 
They  met  at  a  bridge  in  the  valley  of  the  Crati,  which 
was  long  afterwards  called  Ponte  Guiscardo  in  mem- 
ory of  the  day,  and  there  they  promised  to  forget  their 
enmity,  and  agreed  to  divide  Calabria  between  them. 
Roger  now  crossed  to  Sicily  again,  taking  Judith 
with  him,  and  accompanied  by  three  hundred  men  he 
reached  Troina,  where  he  established  himself,  strongly 
fortifying  the  citadel.  The  town,  as  has  been  said, 
was  almost  wholly  Greek,  and  a  quarrel  having  arisen 
between  the  Norman  soldiers  and  the  inhabitants,  the 
latter  attempted  to  storm  the  castle  when  Roger  was 
absent  on  a  raid.  The  Normans  defended  the  Coun- 
tess Judith  with  their  usual  desperate  courage,  and 
Roger  returned  in  time  to  avert  a  catastrophe.  But 
the  castle  gates  had  barely  closed  behind  him  when 
more  than  five  thousand  Saracens  swarmed  up  from 
the  valleys,  attracted  by  the  news  of  a  quarrel  between 
the  Normans  and  the  Greeks,  and  uniting  with  the 
VOL.  n  p 


2io  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

latter,  laid  formal  siege  to  the  castle.  During  four 
months  Roger  and  Judith,  as  well  as  their  men,  suf- 
fered incredible  hardships.  The  winter  was  bitterly 
cold,  and  they  were  so  ill  provided  for  facing  it  that 
the  pair  had  but  one  mantle  between  them,  and  only 
one  could  go  out  upon  the  ramparts  while  the  other 
tried  to  keep  warm  within.  They  were  so  reduced 
by  hunger  at  last  that  the  beautiful  young  Judith 
could  find  no  remedy  against  her  sufferings  excepting 
sleep.  Lean  and  dangerous  as  half-starved  wolves, 
the  Normans  made  frequent  and  desperate  sallies 
against  the  overwhelming  numbers  of  the  enemy ; 
and  on  a  certain  day,  as  Roger  was  attempting  to 
save  one  of  his  men  who  was  surrounded,  his  horse 
was  killed  under  him,  and  Greeks  and  Saracens  were 
upon  him  in  an  instant,  attempting  to  drag  him  away 
alive,  while  he  resisted  '  like  a  bull  that  scents  the 
slaughter  house.'  But  his  sword  was  out,  and  lifting 
it  up  with  both  hands  he  mowed  down  the  foe  till 
their  bodies  lay  in  a  wide  circle  around  him,  and  the 
rest  dared  not  lay  hands  upon  him ;  and  while  they 
looked  on  in  fear,  he  coolly  took  the  saddle  and  bridle 
from  his  dead  horse  and  regained  the  castle  gate  on 
foot. 

But  now  the  besiegers  themselves  suffered  from  the 
great  cold,  and,  having  wine  in  abundance,  they  drank 
so  much  of  it  that  they  were  often  asleep  upon  their 
watch,  while  the  hungry  Normans  waked ;  and  so 


The  Normans  211 

one  night,  when  they  were  stupefied  with  drink,  the 
Normans  crept  out  with  muffled  feet  and  made  an 
end.  Roger  hanged  the  ringleader  of  the  revolt  and 
most  of  his  accomplices,  and  then,  when  the  slain  were 
buried  and  he  held  the  city  fast,  he  left  his  brave 
young  wife  in  sole  command  and  went  over  to  Cala- 
bria to  obtain  horses  ;  for  in  their  extreme  famine 
he  and  his  men  had  eaten  most  of  those  they  had. 
While  he  was  gone,  Judith  herself  made  the  rounds 
of  the  ramparts  by  day  and  night,  and  she  encour- 
aged the  sentinels  with  good  words  and  many  prom- 
ises, so  that  when  her  husband  came  back  he  found 
all  well  and  the  city  at  peace. 

At  this  time  the  Saracens  of  Africa  sent  over  a  fleet 
and  an  army  to  drive  out  the  Normans,  and  there  was 
a  fight  near  Castrogiovanni.  Roger  sent  his  nephew, 
Serlo,  who  afterwards  died  a  gallant  death,  to  draw  out 
the  Arabs  with  a  handful  of  men,  and  the  Arabs  rode 
so  swiftly  that  only  two  of  Serlo's  squadron  escaped  un- 
wounded ;  but  the  enemy  fell  into  the  ambuscade,  and 
Roger  rode  back  to  Troina  with  much  spoil.  The  Sara- 
cens were  not  checked  by  so  small  a  loss,  however, 
and  before  long  a  great  battle  was  fought  by  Cerami. 
There  the  whole  Moslem  host  was  drawn  up  in  order  of 
battle,  and  the  Normans  had  never  faced  such  odds 
before  ;  but  while  Roger  and  his  chiefs  spoke  words  of 
comfort  to  their  men,  says  the  chronicle,  one  suddenly 
rode  before  them  on  a  milk-white  charger,  and  clothed 


212  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

in  steel  from  head  to  heel,  bearing  on  his  lance  a  white 
pennant,  whereon  there  was  a  blood-red  cross,  for  Saint 
George  himself  had  come  down  to  fight  against  the  infi- 
dels ;  and  all  that  day  the  Normans  slew  and  slew,  till 
the  bodies  of  fifteen  thousand  Saracens  were  heaped  up 
like  great  ramparts  on  the  earth,  and  the  Normans  slept 
in  their  armour  on  the  slippery  field,  and  on  the  next 
day  they  pursued  the  flying  foe  far  and  wide  through 
the  valleys  and  ravines  of  the  mountains. 

In  gratitude  to  God  and  Saint  Peter  for  this  great 
victory  over  the  Africans  and  Saracens,  Roger  sent  to 
Pope  Alexander  the  Second  four  camels,  and  the  Pope 
thereupon  sent  his  benediction  and  a  general  absolution 
for  past  sins  to  Roger  and  to  all  those  who  were  fight- 
ing, or  should  fight,  to  free  Sicily  from  the  Moslems  ;  but 
the  Pope  added  that  this  pardon  could  be  of  no  avail 
unless  the  Christians  felt  some  real  repentance  for  their 
sins  and  made  an  effort  to  lead  better  lives  in  future. 

At  this  time  the  merchants  of  Pisa,  whose  commerce 
with  Sicily  had  suffered  greatly  under  the  Mohamme- 
dan rule,  sent  out  a  fleet  with  a  sort  of  general  commis- 
sion to  do  as  much  damage  to  the  Saracens  as  possible ; 
and  finding  Roger  in  Sicily,  the  admiral  sent  messengers 
to  him  atTroina,  proposing  a  joint  attack  upon  Palermo. 
But  Roger  was  busy  with  other  matters,  and  requested 
a  short  delay  before  making  the  attempt,  and  the  Pisans 
sailed  on  without  him.  The  description  of  their  attack 
is  very  vague,  but  it  is  clear  that  they  made  no  real 


The  Normans  213 

attempt  to  storm  the  capital,  and  contented  themselves 
with  filing  the  chain  which  the  Saracens  had  drawn 
across  the  harbour,  and  carrying  it  back  to  Pisa  as  a 
trophy. 

After  this,  as  it  was  summer,  and  the  weather  in  the 
plains  was  too  hot  for  fighting,  though  it  was  cool 
enough  in  high  Troina,  Roger  projected  another  visit  to 
his  brother  the  Guiscard  in  Apulia.  Before  setting  out 
he  made  his  usual  preparations  for  a  journey,  which 
consisted  in  sacking  a  few  towns,  whence  he  collected 
enough  booty  and  ready  money  to  stock  Troina  with 
provisions  and  to  provide  for  his  own  necessities  on  the 
way.  He  left  his  countess  in  command  and  returned 
as  soon  as  the  great  heat  was  over,  bringing  with  him 
a  hundred  men  lent  him  by  Duke  Robert.  An  expedi- 
tion that  he  made  against  Girgenti  about  this  time  very 
nearly  led  him  to  destruction ;  for  on  his  return  his 
advance  guard  fell  into  an  ambush,  and  in  something 
like  a  panic  dashed  up  the  side  of  a  hill,  leaving  the 
train  of  animals  that  carried  the  booty  at  the  mercy  of 
the  enemy,  who  killed  the  driver.  It  was  with  the 
greatest  difficulty  that  Roger  prevailed  upon  his  men 
to  come  back  and  fight,  and  though  they  ultimately  did 
so,  and  cut  their  way  through  with  the  plunder,  they  lost 
one  of  their  best  men  in  the  action.  Reflecting  upon 
this  skirmish,  Roger  began  to  see  that  it  would  be  impos- 
sible to  maintain  the  position  of  a  mere  marauder  for- 
ever. The  strength  of  the  Saracens  in  the  centre  and 


214  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

west  of  Sicily  was  unshaken,  for  it  seems  that  the  great 
majority  of  those  slain  in  the  battle  of  Cerami  were 
Africans,  and  the  Saracens  of  Palermo  had  not  yet 
brought  their  real  forces  into  the  field.  Roger  there- 
fore- now  made  a  serious  treaty  with  his  brother  Robert, 
and  the  time  was  favourable  for  a  joint  attempt,  as  the 
Greeks  had  not  caused  the  Normans  much  anxiety  since 
the  defeat  of  Abul  Kare,  and  the  Greek  city  of  Bari 
had  at  last  made  an  agreement  with  Robert  by  which 
he  was  allowed  to  enter  the  walls.  The  so-called  Duke 
of  Italy  had  been  obliged  to  return  to  Durazzo,  whence 
he  was  intriguing  with  a  few  discontented  Normans 
to  produce  a  rising  in  Italy,  a  danger  to  which  the 
Guiscard  seems  to.  have  been  indifferent.  He  therefore 
turned  his  attention  to  Sicily,  and  in  1064  the  two 
brothers  crossed  the  straits  with  an  army  of  five  hun- 
dred Normans,  traversed  Sicily  without  opposition,  and 
encamped  upon  a  hill  before  Palermo.  Here  the  chron- 
icler says  that  they  were  tormented  by  tarantula  spiders. 
This  statement  has  caused  some  controversy  among 
historians,  who  were  possibly  unacquainted  with  the 
spider  in  question.  From  personal  knowledge  I  am 
able  to  say  that  the  bite  is  extremely  painful  and  irritat- 
ing, but  not  fatal  in  any  known  case,  and  that  tarantulas 
really  are  common  enough  all  over  the  south.  No  one 
has  been  able  to  say  with  certainty  which  elevation  it 
was  that  the  Normans  selected  for  their  first  encamp- 
ment. I  am  inclined  to  think  that  it  was  Monreale, 


The  Normans  215 

because  that  point  is  the  one  by  which  they  would 
naturally  have  reached  Palermo  on  the  march  from  the 
interior,  and  because  they  afterwards  returned  to  it  and 
built  the  famous  abbey  on  the  site.  Be  that  as  it  may, 
they  were  obliged  to  give  way  to  the  tarantulas  and  to 
encamp  in  lower  ground,  where  they  remained  during 
three  months,  and  made  futile  attacks  upon  the  city, 
which  they  were  unable  to  blockade  by  sea.  They 
retired  discomfited,  and  after  a  long  raid  through  the 
country  the  Guiscard  returned  to  Calabria  with  the  con- 
viction that  for  the  conquest  of  Sicily  a  fleet  was  as 
necessary  as  an  army.  *  Soon  after  Guiscard's  return  a 
civil  war  broke  out  between  one  of  the  African  chiefs 
and  Ibn-al-Hawwas,  who  was,  however,  soon  slain, 
thereby  leaving  the  African  Arabs  in  power.  The 
Sicilian  Moslems  soon  began  to  revolt  against  their 
exactions,  and  being  well  informed  of  the  situation,  the 
wily  Guiscard  resolved  to  let  internal  discord  do  its 
work. 

Meanwhile  he  proceeded  with  the  final  conquest  of 
Calabria,  destroyed  the  city  of  Policastro  in  the  gulf 
of  that  name,  reduced  the  neighbourhood  of  Cosenza 
to  subjection,  failed  in  the  siege  of  Ajello,  but  got 
possession  of  the  place  in  the  end  by  a  treaty  with 
the  inhabitants,  and  then  finally  turned  his  attention 
to  Apulia.  The  conspiracy  planned  and  fostered  in 
Durazzo  by  Perenos,  the  Duke  of  Italy,  had  reached 
dangerous  proportions.  Many  Normans  were  now 


2i6  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

jealous  of  Duke  Robert's  increasing  power,  and  more 
than  one  owed  him  vengeance  for  some  deed  of  vio- 
lence and  cruelty.  The  son  of  Humphrey,  who  was 
supposed  to  be  Robert's  ward,  but  to  whom  the 
Guiscard  paid  no  more  attention  than  if  he  never 
existed,  joined  the  malcontents,  and  Perenos  exacted 
hostages  from  them  in  order  to  be  sure  of  their  good 
faith,  and  in  return  obtained  for  them  large  sums  of 
money  from  Constantinople.  Having  learned  wisdom 
from  the  Guiscard  himself,  his  enemies  avoided  battle, 
and  declined  to  lay  siege  to  his  cities,  but  ravaged 
his  lands  in  all  directions ;  and  when  he,  on  his  part, 
attempted  to  retaliate  by  attacking  Perenos  in  Du- 
razzo,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Adriatic,  a  strong 
Greek  fleet  under  the  Admiral  Mabrica  put  his  ves- 
sels to  flight.  Mabrica  now  landed,  and  Bari,  forget- 
ful of  its  promises,  opened  its  gates.  The  Greeks 
possessed  the  valuable  aid  of  the  Scandinavian  Var- 
anger  guard,  and  gained  more  than  one  advantage  in 
hand-to-hand  fight,  and  it  looked  as  if  the  fruit  of 
a  long  and  laborious  conquest  were  to  be  snatched 
from  Robert's  hands ;  but  gathering  his  tremendous 
energy,  as  he  always  could  in  any  extremity,  he  at 
last  got  the  upper  hand,  the  Greeks  fell  back  before 
him,  the  chief  of  the  Norman  conspirators  fled  in 
panic  to  Constantinople,  and  the  duke  brought  the 
insurrection  to  an  end  when  he  got  possession,  by 
treachery,  of  Monte  Peloso,  the  fortress  on  the  hill 


The  Normans  217 

overlooking  the  often-disputed  plains  of  Cannae. 
This  was  in  1068.  Robert  immediately  set  about 
effacing  the  impression  produced  in  the  south  by 
this  revolution,  and,  rather  than  endanger  his  return- 
ing popularity  by  vengeance,  however  just,  he  con- 
sented to  be  reconciled  with  those  of  the  conspirators 
who  had  not  fled. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  the  Seljuks  became  the 
cause  of  serious  anxiety  to  Constantinople,  for  they 
had  advanced  as  far  as  Antioch  and  threatened  the 
capital  itself.  The  Greek  emperor  was  therefore  una- 
ble to  turn  his  attention  to  Italy,  and  at  the  same 
time  the  Greek  cause  suffered  a  serious  loss  by  the 
death  of  Argyros,  the  son  of  the  patriotic  Meles. 
After  many  vicissitudes,  after  suffering  exile  and  im- 
prisonment, he  had  returned  to  spend  the  last  four 
years  of  his  life  in  Bari,  and  though  at  the  end  he 
entertained  friendly  relations  with  the  Normans,  he 
nevertheless  remained  the  representative  of  the  Greek- 
Italians  until  his  death.  It  is  surmised  that  he  left 
his  personal  possessions  to  Robert  Guiscard,  for  soon 
after  his  death  the  dul<  3  appeared  before  Bari  with 
a  fleet  and  demanded  that  all  the  houses  which  had 
belonged  to  Argyros  should  be  handed  over  to  him 
at  once ;  and  as  they  were  a  group  of  buildings  resem- 
bling a  castle  rather  than  a  palace,  and  dominating 
the  city,  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  Greeks  should 
have  refused  haughtily  to  give  them  up.  By  way 


218 


The  Rulers  of  the  South 


of  adding  insult  to  injury,  however,  they  collected 
together  a  vast  quantity  of  precious  objects  of  gold 
and  silver,  and  carried  them  in  procession  upon  the 


OLD   WELL   AT   MILETO 


ramparts  under  the  blazing  sun,  so  that  Robert  might 
be  dazzled  by  the  sight  of  the  wealth  which  was  re- 
fused him.  But  he,  from  his  ship,  answered  smilingly 


The  Normans  219 

that  all  he  saw  was  his,  and  that  he  was  much 
bounden  to  the  people  of  Bari  for  taking  such  good 
care  of  his  possessions. 

Thereupon  he  began  a  siege  which  lasted  two  years  and 
eight  months,  and  might  have  lasted  longer  had  not 
Count  Roger  lent  his  assistance  at  the  last.  Robert  deter- 
mined to  blockade  the  city  by  land  and  sea,  in  order  to 
starve  it  to  submission,  and  while  his  cavalry  encamped 
on  the  land  side,  he  shut  in  the  harbour  by  anchoring 
before  it  a  number  of  vessels  lashed  together  with 
chains  ;  and  as  the  shelving  shore  would  not  allow  the 
close  approach  of  ships  of  such  draught,  he  built  out 
two  wooden  piers  from  the  beach  to  the  two  ends  of  the 
line.  Meanwhile,  the  patrician  of  the  city,  Bizanzio, 
went  to  Constantinople  and  appealed  to  the  emperor, 
though  Robert  made  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  inter- 
cept him.  He  returned  with  a  number  of  ships  and  a 
quantity  of  provisions,  and  though  the  Normans  sank 
twelve  of  the  vessels,  the  remainder  succeeded  in  forc- 
ing his  blockade,  to  the  great  joy  of  the  inhabitants. 
They  made  a  heroic  defence,  but  within  the  city  there 
was  a  strong  party  in  favour  of  the  Normans,  under  the 
leadership  of  Argirizzo,  who  maintained  a  correspond- 
ence with  the  duke,  and  served  his  end  in  every  way. 
The  siege  had  lasted  two'  years  when  Argirizzo  caused 
Bizanzio  to  be  assassinated,  and  his  partisans  fired  a 
number  of  houses  belonging  to  the  patriotic  party. 
The  latter  retorted  by  an  attempt  to  murder  the 


22O  The   Rulers  of  the  South 

Guiscard,  which  only  failed  by  the  merest  accident. 
For  a  sum  of  money  a  certain  soldier,  who  had  a 
private  grudge  against  the  duke,  and  had  formerly 
served  under  him,  agreed  to  do  the  deed.  Slipping  out 
of  the  city  unobserved,  and  armed  with  his  sling  and 
pike,  he  turned,  when  he  was  at  a  little  distance  from 
the  rampart,  and  slung  a  few  stones  towards  the  city,  as 
if  he  belonged  to  the  besieging  army.  Then,  entering 
the  Norman  camp  without  difficulty,  for  it  was  already 
dusk,  he  soon  found  the  duke's  quarters,  a  mere  hut 
made  of  branches  so  loosely  fastened'  together  that 
the  murderer  could  see  through  them  into  the  interior. 
The  great  Norman  was  seated  at  a  low  table  alone, 
with  the  remains  of  his  simple  supper  before  him. 
He  was  overcome  with  fatigue,  and  as  he  sat  there 
resting,  he  nodded,  half  asleep.  The  man  watched 
him  some  time  by  the  light  of  the  small  oil  lamp,  and 
then,  taking  careful  aim,  he  hurled  his  pike  at  the 
duke's  head  with  all  his  might,  and  instantly  fled 
through  the  darkness.  But  at  that  instant  the  tired 
man  had  fallen  forward  upon  the  table,  his  face  upon 
his  arms,  sound  asleep,  and  the  dart  had  passed  harm- 
lessly above  his  bent  neck.  It  was  found  on  the  fol- 
lowing day,  and  the  Normans  at  once  built  their  leader 
a  stone  house. 

During  the  long  siege  Robert  had  made  more  than 
one  expedition,  and  had  attempted  to  take  Brindisi  back, 
but  had  lost  there  a  hundred  of  his  men  by  a  piece  of 


The  Normans 


221 


frightful  treachery.  The  Greek  governor  pretended  to 
treat  secretly  with  him  for  the  betrayal  of  the  city,  and 
at  the  appointed  hour  and  place  the  Normans  were 
admitted,  one  by  one,  by  a  ladder.  As  each  one  then 


•'• 


1ERKACE   OK    SANTA    MARIA    DI    GESLT,    I'ALERMU 

passed  through  a  door,  he  was  silently  killed  by  the 
Greeks,  and  so  a  hundred  perished  before  those  behind 
knew  what  was  happening.  But  before  Bari  fell, 
Robert  took  final  possession  of  Brindisi. 


222  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

During  all  this  time  Roger  was  in  Sicily,  gradually 
strengthening  his  position,  and  now  determined  to  ad- 
vance upon  Palermo  by  slow  and  sure  steps.  It  was  in 
1068,  in  the  first  year  of  the  siege  of  Bari,  that  he  won 
the  decisive  battle  of  Misilmeri.  The  Moslems,  exasper- 
ated by  his  unceasing  ravages,  had  resolved  to  face 
him  at  last,  and  to  stop  his  advance  at  the  castle  called 
in  Arabic  Manzil-al-Emir,  corrupted  into  Misilmeri. 
It  is  the  very  spot  at  which,  in  1860,  Garibaldi 
joined  the  Sicilian  revolutionaries  before  seizing  Pa- 
lermo, and  is  only  nine  miles  from  the  city.  We  know 
not  how  many  Moslems  came  out  to  meet  the  Normans, 
but  it  is  told  that  all  were  slain.  Now  the  Saracens 
reared  carrier  pigeons,  feeding  them  on  corn  and  honey, 
and  took  them  in  baskets  when  they  went  out  to  war 
to  carry  back  news  of  victory  or  defeat ;  and  some  of 
these  were  found  among  the  booty.  Then  Roger 
indeed  sent  the  news  to  Palermo,  for  he  took  slips  of 
white  parchment  and  dipped  them  in  Saracen  blood 
and  fastened  them  to  the  birds'  necks,  and  let  the 
pigeons  fly.  And  when  the  people  of  Palermo  saw 
them,  they  knew  the  worst,  and  the  air  was  full  of  the 
lamentations  of  women  and  children. 

But  Roger  did  not  attempt  to  take  the  city  itself,  for 
he  now  fully  understood  that  both  an  army  and  a  fleet 
would  be  necessary  for  such  an  undertaking,  and  the 
signal  defeat  he  had  inflicted  upon  the  Saracens  at 
the  very  gates  of  their  capital  had  inspired  a  whole- 


The  Normans  223 

some  terror  of  the  Normans  throughout  the  island, 
so  that  he  was  more  free  than  heretofore  to  go  and 
come  at  his  pleasure. 

Meanwhile,  the  siege  of  Bari  proceeded.  After  the 
murder  of  Bizanzio,  Argirizzo  redoubled  his  efforts  in 
favour  of  the  Normans,  and  the  people  cried  out  for 
bread  before  the  doors  of  the  Greek  general's  palace, 
bidding  him  capitulate  with  the  duke  unless  he  could 
feed  them.  In  reply,  he  made  one  last  desperate 
appeal  to  Constantinople ;  a  messenger  was  found 
who  dared  to  run  the  blockade,  and  who  bore  to  the 
emperor  the  tale  of  suffering.  Then  the  emperor 
was  moved,  and  commanded  that  a  fleet  should  be  got 
ready  at  Durazzo,  under  the  command  of  a  certain 
Norman  who  seems  to  have  been  one  of  the  conspira- 
tors against  Robert's  life,  who  had  fled  to  the  East 
after  their  failure.  The  messenger  got  back  into  the 
city  unhurt,  and  he  bade  the  citizens  light  many  torches 
upon  the  ramparts  at  night  to  guide  the  rescuing  fleet. 

But  at  this  time,  and  at  his  brother's  request,  Count 
Roger  had  sailed  up  from  Sicily  with  many  good  ships ; 
and  when  the  Normans  understood  what  was  meant 
by  the  torches  lighted  every  night  on  the  city  walls, 
Roger  set  a  lookout  to  watch  for  the  coming  enemy. 
At  last,  on  a  certain  night,  in  the  mid-watch,  many 
lights  hove  in  sight,  like  a  constellation  of  stars  upon 
the  horizon,  and  they  were  the  masthead  lights  which 
men-of-war  carried  in  those  days,  and  the  admiral's  ship 


224  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

carried  two.  Then  Roger  sailed  out  with  his  fleet, 
and  a  great  sea-fight  was  fought  in  the  dark.  Roger 
himself  attacked  the  admiral,  recognizing  his  ship  by 
its  lights,  and  took  him  prisoner;  the  ships  of  the 
Greek  fleet  were  almost  all  destroyed  or  captured,  and 
the  torches  that  were  to  have  guided  a  rescuing  army 
to  Bari  lit  up  the  return  of  a  triumphant  foe.  The 
last  hope  of  assistance  was  gone,  and  Argirizzo  now 
treated  almost  openly  with  Robert  for  the  surrender  of 
the  city,  sending  his  own  daughter  as  a  hostage  of  his 
good  faith.  He  immediately  seized  one  of  the  principal 
towers  of  defence,  and  the  negotiations  were  carried 
on  without  further  concealment.  Yet  even  now  the 
patriotic  inhabitants  would  have  held  out ;  men  and 
women,  children,  priests,  and  monks  came  in  throngs 
to  the  foot  of  the  tower  where  Argirizzo  was,  and  lift- 
ing up  their  hands,  implored  him  with  many  tears  not 
to  betray  them  to  the  terrible  Normans.  But  Argirizzo 
turned  a  deaf  ear  to  their  supplications,  and  would  not 
even  look  out  and  see  the  people ;  and  on  the  eve  of 
Palm  Sunday,  in  the  year  1071,  Robert  made  his 
triumphal  entry  into  the  city. 

With  the  wisdom  born  of  long  experience,  the  great 
duke  disappointed  the  expectations  of  a  terror-struck 
people ;  he  neither  took  from  them  the  rich  treasures 
which  they  had  tauntingly  exposed  to  his  gaze,  nor 
exacted  satisfaction  for  an  insult  that  had  brought  a 
smile  to  his  lips ;  he  restored  to  the  citizens  the  lands 


The  Normans  225 

occupied  by  the  Normans  in  the  neighbourhood  during 
the  siege ;  he  allowed  no  bloodshed  nor  violence,  and 
treated  the  Greek  garrison  as  prisoners  of  war ;  the 
only  conditions  that  he  imposed  upon  the  city  were  that 
Argirizzo  should  be  governor,  and  that  the  tribute 
formerly  paid  to  Constantinople  should  now  be  paid 
to  himself.  In  order  that  these  conditions  should  be 
faithfully  executed,  he  established  a  Norman  garrison 
in  the  fortifications.  To  such  a  degree  had  a  long 
career  of  conquest  civilized  the  wild  freebooter  of 
San  Marco. 

The  fall  of  Bari  was  the  end  of  all  Greek  claims  in 
Italy,  and  it  had  been  brought  about  by  the  rapid 
development  of  the  Norman  naval  power.  Up  to  the 
year  1060  no  mention  is  found  of  any  Norman  navy ; 
ten  years  later  the  Norman  fleets  were  more  than  a 
match  for  those  of  Constantinople,  and  from  their 
victory  at  Bari  they  sailed  almost  directly  to  the  final 
capture  of  Palermo.  Bari  was  taken  on  the  sixteenth 
of  April,  and  in  the  first  week  of  August  fifty-eight 
Norman  men-of-war,  of  which  ten  were  of  the  largest 
size,  were  ready  to  sail  down  upon  Sicily  from  the 
harbour  of  Otranto,  with  an  army  numbering  between 
eight  and  ten  thousand  men.  Robert  had  collected 
not  only  Normans,  but  Lombards,  Apulians,  and  Cala- 
brians,  and  he  had  taken  or  forced  into  his  service  the 
soldiers  of  the  Greek  garrison  taken  prisoners.  Under 
his  iron  hand  these  men  of  many  nationalities  fought 

VOL.   II  O 


226  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

with  unbroken  discipline  throughout  a  campaign  that 
lasted  six  months.  He  was  not  joined  by  all  the 
Norman  princes.  Gisulf  of  Salerno,  his  own  brother- 
in-law,  Richard  of  Capua,  the  Count  of  Trani,  and 
many  smaller  lords  stood  sullenly  aloof,  expecting  to 
witness  his  destruction,  and  one,  if  not  more,  took 
advantage  of  his  absence  to  invade  his  dominions ; 
but  nothing  could  turn  the  sons  of  Tancred  from  their 
purpose,  and  while  Robert  marched  a  part  of  his 
forces  from  Otranto  to  Reggio,  the  rest  pursued  their 
way  to  the  same  port  by  sea. 

Roger  was  already  in  Sicily  when  Robert  crossed  the 
straits,  and  hearing  of  his  brother's  advance  he  seized 
and  fortified  Catania,  of  which  the  alliance  had  been 
uncertain  since  the  assassination  of  Ibn-at-Timnah. 
Roger  now  took  command  of  the  land  forces  and 
marched  to  Palermo  through  the  heart  of  Sicily,  only 
turning  aside  to  visit  his  wife  Judith  in  Troina,  where 
he  was  joined  by  two  nephews.  Duke  Robert,  who 
seems  to  have  feared  the  heat  in  the  month  of  August, 
sailed  with  fifty  ships  to  Palermo.  With  the  loss  of  a 
few  men  who  were  killed  while  collecting  forage,  and 
whose  death  was  amply  avenged,  Roger  reached  the 
entrance  to  the  Golden  Shell ;  and  as  he  gazed  down 
upon  the  groves  of  oranges  and  lemons  and  carob 
trees,  the  villas,  and  the  Moorish  palaces,  and  the  gar- 
dens of  roses  that  filled  the  fertile  valley  then,  as  now, 
and  as  he  beheld  the  walls  and  minarets  and  domes  of 


The  Normans  227 

Moslem  Palermo  beyond,  his  keen  eye  may  well  have 
descried  the  white  sails  of  his  brother's  fleets  in  the 
offing,  for  Duke  Robert  reached  the  city  almost  at  the 
same  time.  It  is  certain  that  the  people  of  Palermo 
were  surprised  by  the  simultaneous  appearance  of  the 
Normans,  both  on  land  and  sea,  and  the  invaders  took 
possession  of  the  gardens  and  orchards  and  pleasure 
houses,  almost  without  striking  a  blow.  The  few  Mos- 
lems who  fell  into  their  hands  were  immediately  sold 
as  slaves,  and  what  they  found  they  divided  among 
themselves,  after  choosing  for  Roger  and  the  princes 
his  nephews  'delectable  gardens  abounding  with  fruit 
and  water ;  and  the  knights  were  royally  lodged  in  an 
earthly  paradise.' 

The  Saracens  had  built  a  tower,  or  castle,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  small  river  Oreto  eastwards  of  the  city, 
by  the  sea,  and  as  Roger  at  once  saw  the  necessity  of 
commanding  the  point,  in  order  that  Norman  ships 
might  enter  the  stream,  he  went  up  to  the  walls  and 
defied  the  Saracens  in  a  loud  voice.  So  they  came  out 
and  fought,  and  the  Normans  killed  thirty  of  them  and 
took  fifteen  prisoners,  and  held  the  tower.  Robert 
Guiscard  now  landed  his  army  and  encamped  between 
the  mouth  of  the  Oreto  and  the  quarter  still  called  the 
Kalsa,  which  has  been  already  described  in  the  words 
of  Ibn  Haukal.  Roger  took  up  his  position  on  the 
south  side  of  ths  city  in  the  direction  of  Monreale,  and 
opposite  the  gate  now  called  Porta  Nuova,  in  the  neigh- 


228  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

bourhood  of  the  papyrus  swamp.  As  the  army  was 
not  numerous  enough  to  invest  Palermo  from  that  point 
to  the  sea  on  the  west,  the  besiegers  patrolled  the  coun- 
try in  order  to  cut  off  communication  between  the 
inhabitants  and  the  small  bay  westward  of  Monte  Pelle- 
grino,  which  the  Carthaginians  had  so  successfully  uti- 
lized in  the  days  of  Hamilcar  Barca.  This  fact  is  to  be 
inferred  from  our  information  regarding  the  famine  that 
soon  prevailed  in  the  city.  The  siege  began  about  the 
first  of  September,  and  was  varied  by  many  incidents 
during  the  next  four  months.  The  people  of  Palermo 
invoked  the  help  of  the  African  Arabs,  who  sent  a 
strong  fleet  to  attack  Robert's  ships ;  the  Normans  pro- 
tected their  own  from  the  stones  and  darts  of  their 
adversaries  by  means  of  great  pieces  of  thick  red  felt, 
of  which  they  seem  to  have  seized  a  great  quantity  in 
some  dyeing  establishment  in  the  suburbs;  but  some 
writers  say  that  this  was  an  ancient  Scandinavian  cus- 
tom. The  Arabs  ranged  their  ships  in  battle  order, 
and  came  on  with  a  tremendous  blare  of  clarions  and 
trumpets,  while  the  Christians  performed  their  devo- 
tions in  silence.  We  do  not  know  how  the  African 
ships  had  succeeded  in  entering  the  harbour  to  join 
those  of  their  allies,  though  it  is  clear  enough  that 
fifty  small  vessels  could  not  blockade  such  a  place  as 
Palermo ;  but  we  know  that  the  combined  fleets  of  the 
Moslems  sailed  out  against  the  Normans  and  were 
driven  back  in  a  short  and  furious  battle.  Some  ships 


The   Normans  229 

were  captured  and  some  were  sunk,  and  when  the 
Normans  reached  the  great  chain  which  was  drawn 
against  the  entrance  of  the  harbour,  they  broke 
through  it  and  fired  the  vessels  that  lay  within. 

Now  also  famine  came  to  the  help  of  the  besiegers, 
and  the  bodies  of  the  starved  dead  lay  unburied,  and 
poisoned  the  air.  Then  the  Normans  laid  loaves  of 
bread  upon  the  ground  before  the  walls  to  tempt 
the  people  out ;  some  came  out  and  took  the  bread 
and  ate  it  ravenously  and  ran  back.  But  on  the  next 
day  the  besiegers  placed  the  bread  a  little  farther 
away,  and  farther  still  on  the  day  after  that,  and  then 
they  caught  the  miserable  people  and  sold  them  for 
slaves. 

There  were  also  brave  deeds  done  in  single  combat. 
A  certain  Moslem  knight  in  full  armour  used  to  sit 
upon  his  horse  in  one  of  the  gates  when  it  was  open 
and  well  defended ;  and  one  of  Roger's  nephews  rode 
at  him  amain,  and  drove  him  in  and  killed  him ;  but 
when  the  Norman  turned  the  Moslems  had  shut  the 
gates,  and  he  was  alone  within  the  city.  With  in- 
comparable courage,  seeing  that  his  retreat  was  cut 
off,  he  set  spurs  to  his  horse  and  rode  at  full  speed 
through  the  heart  of  Palermo  to  another  gate,  where 
he  slew  the  guards  and  let  himself  out  unhurt. 

During  the  long  siege  Robert  received  bad  news 
from  the  continent.  The  Norman  nobles  who  had 
refused  to  join  the  enterprise,  Richard  of  'Capua  and 


230  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

many  others,  after  at  first  making  a  semblance  of 
neutrality,  made  incursions  into  the  dukedom,  seized 
the  castle  of  Sant'  Angelo  in  Calabria,  and  set  the 
whole  country  in  a  blaze.  A  weaker  man  would  have 
divided  his  forces  and  would  have  sent  back  a  part 
of  them  to  avenge  the  outrage  and  to  repel  the 
invaders ;  but  Robert  well  knew  that  if  he  held 
Palermo  and  made  himself  lord  of  Sicily  he  could 
chastise  his  enemies  at  his  leisure,  and  he  never  hesi- 
tated in  pursuing  his  purpose.  And  now  the  time  was 
come  for  a  general  assault,  for  the  Arab  fleet  had  been 
destroyed,  and  the  garrison  was  weak  from  famine 
and  sickness.  So  Robert  prepared  fourteen  great 
scaling  ladders,  seven  for  Roger's  men  and  seven  for 
his  own,  and  he  gave  Roger  the  honour  of  the  first 
assault. 

At  dawn  on  the  fifth  of  January,  1072,  Roger  made 
the  attempt ;  the  bowmen  and  slingers  went  before, 
bearing  the  ladders,  while  the  cavalry  moved  behind 
them  in  even  order.  The  Saracens  fearlessly  opened 
their  gates  and  rode  at  Roger's  infantry,  which  gave 
way  under  the  shock,  but  the  knights  soon  drove  the 
Moslems  back  before  them  in  wild  confusion,  trusting 
that  in  the  rush  they  might  suddenly  enter  the  city. 
The  defenders  within,  seeing  the  great  danger,  shut 
the  gates  and  sacrificed  their  unhappy  comrades  to 
save  the  city.  Then  the  Normans  brought  up  their 
scaling  ladders  and  set  them  against  the  high  ramparts, 


The  Normans  231 

while  Duke  Robert  stood  in  their  midst  calling  upon 
them  to  take  that  city  which  was  hateful  to  God  and 
subject  to  devils,  and  bidding  them  know  that,  though 
he  was  their  general,  Christ  Himself  was  their  leader. 
Then  one  man,  whose  name  was  Archifred,  made  a 
great  sign  of  the  cross  and  set  his  foot  upon  the 
ladder,  and  two  others  went  up  with  him ;  but  the 
deed  was  so  fearful  that  no  others  would  follow.  The 
three  reached  the  rampart  and  stood  upon  it,  and 
fought  till  their  shields  and  swords  were  broken  in 
their  hands ;  and  then,  being  defenceless,  they  turned 
and  leaped  for  their  lives,  and  slipped  and  rolled  and 
fell  down  the  escarpment,  and  by  a  miracle  they 
reached  the  ground  unhurt.  Now  others,  and  many, 
came  forward  to  do  as  these  had  done,  but  the  walls 
were  high  and  the  defenders  staunch,  and  Robert  saw 
that  he  was  sacrificing  good  men  for  no  good  end. 
He  therefore  ordered  Roger  to  pretend  to  carry  on 
the  assault,  while  he  himself  rode  round  through  the 
gardens  to  a  point  of  the  Kalsa  where  .the  enemy 
expected  no  attack,  and  where  he  had  hidden  three 
hundred  chosen  men  with  their  ladders  among  certain 
trees.  He  was  successful  at  last.  Hardly  an  enemy 
was  upon  the  walls,  and  in  a  few  minutes  his  men  were 
rushing  through  the  streets  to  open  the  nearest  gate 
for  him.  The  day  had  been  spent  in  the  long  assault, 
but  as  the  sun  went  down  the  Normans  were  masters 
of  the  Kalsa,  while  the  surviving  Saracens  retired 


232  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

within  the  Kasr,  leaving  their  heaps  of  dead  where  they 
had  fallen  in  the  streets.  All  night  long  the  Norman 
soldiers  marched  up  from  the  encampments  and  filled 
the  Kalsa,  and  many  of  them  spent  that  first  night 
in  sacking  the  rich  outer  town,  slaying  the  Moslems 
where  they  found  them,  but  sparing  the  children  for 
slaves.  Within  the  fortress  the  half-vanquished  Sara- 
cens sat  all  night  in  debate,  and  when  the  morning 
came  most  of  them  were  for  surrendering,  and  they 
sent  out  ambassadors  to  treat  with  Duke  Robert  and 
Count  Roger  for  terms  of  peace. 

The  conquerors  had  learned  the  worth  of  mercy  and 
the  wisdom  of  forbearance,  and  they  gave  the  great 
city  very  honourable  terms.  The  Saracens  were  not 
to  be  disturbed  in  the  exercise  of  their  religion  ;  not 
one  of  them  was  to  be  exiled  from  Palermo ;  they 
were  not  be  oppressed  by  new  and  unjust  laws;  and 
finally,  they  were  to  enjoy  the  right  of  being  judged 
at  law  by  tribunals  of  their  own. 

These  points  being  settled,  Roger  took  a  large 
force,  entered  the  Kasr,  and  occupied  the  fortifica- 
tions, but  it  was  not  until  the  tenth  of  January  that 
he  made  his  solemn  entry.  A  thousand  knights  lined 
the  streets  through  which  the  army  was  to  pass ; 
Robert  Guiscard  and  his  wife  Sigelgaita  headed  the 
triumphal  march,  with  Count  Roger  and  the  others 
of  the  house  of  Tancred,  and  Guy  of  Salerno,  who 
had  quarrelled  with  his  nephew  Gisulf,  was  also 


The  Normans  233 

there.  So  the  duke  and  all  the  princes  and  the 
clergy  rode  up  to  Saint  Gregory's  Church  of  Our 
Lady,  of  which  the  Saracens  had  made  a  mosque,  and 
a  solemn  mass  was  said  by  the  Christian  Archbishop 
of  Palermo,  who  had  suffered  much  at  the  hand  of 
the  Saracens.  '  Then,'  says  the  devout  chronicler, 
'  a  great  marvel  appeared  in  this  church,  for  certain 
good  Christians  heard  in  that  church  the  voices  of 
the  angels,  and  very  sweet  song,  which  praised  God 
on  high,  and  at  divers  times  this  church  was  lit  up 
with  heavenly  light,  more  bright  than  any  light  of 
this  world.' 

The  fall  of  Palermo  did  not  mean  the  immediate 
conquest  of  all  Sicily  ;  lofty  Castrogiovanni  still  held 
its  own,  and  Marsala,  '  the  harbour  of  Allah,'  and 
many  strong  and  good  places  in  the  west ;  but  it 
meant  that  the  Saracen  domination  was  at  an  end, 
and  then  and  there  the  Guiscard  and  his  brother 
divided  Sicily  between  them.  The  duke,  generous  to 
himself,  kept  the  suzerainty  of  the  whole  island  with 
Palermo,  the  Val-Demone,  and  Messina,  and  Roger 
received  the  rest  of  Sicily,  conquered  already,  or  still 
to  be  subdued,  keeping  his  vast  possessions  in  Cala- 
bria as  recognized  by  his  brother.  From  this  time  he 
is  known  in  history  as  Roger  the  Great  Count. 

One  of  the  two  principal  vassals  who  were  to  hold 
the  new  country  under  the  brothers  was  their  nephew, 
Serlo,  the  other  was  a  certain  Arisgot  of  Pozzuoli,  a 


234  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

relative  of  the  house  of  Tancred ;  but  the  former's 
days  were  numbered,  and  not  long  after  the  taking 
of  Palermo  he  came  to  an  untimely  end  by  treachery. 
He  was  at  that  time  keeping  the  peace  in  Cerami 
against  the  incursions  of  the  Arabs  of  Castrogiovanni. 
But  there  was  a  certain  Arab  with  whom  he  had 
sworn  brotherhood,  by  touching  ear  to  ear  after  the 
manner  of  the  Saracens ;  and  this  man  betrayed  him 
and  told  him  treacherously  that  on  a  certain  day  he 
should  not  ride  to  a  place  named,  because  a  small 
party  of  seven  Arabs  had  determined  then  to  make 
a  raid  in  that  direction.  But  Serlo  laughed  loud,  and 
rode  out  with  a  few  companions ;  and  his  enemy  in- 
deed sent  the  seven  Saracens  to  the  place,  but  he  hid 
seven  hundred  in  an  ambuscade  hard  by.  So  Serlo 
and  his  comrades  were  suddenly  surrounded  and  they 
sprang  upon  a  boulder  and  fought  for  their  lives. 
When  they  had  slain  many,  and  their  weapons  were 
all  broken,  they  still  hurled  down  stones  and  earth 
upon  their  assailants ;  but  at  the  last  they  were  all 
killed,  save  two,  who  lay  wounded  and  half  dead 
under  the  piles  of  slain.  The  Saracens  cut  off  Ser- 
lo's  head  and  sent  it  as  a  present  to  the  emir  in 
Africa  ;  but  with  their  knives  they  cut  out  the  brave 
man's  heart  and  apportioned  it  among  them  and  de- 
voured it,  trusting  that  thereby  his  courage  might 
enter  into  their  own  bodies. 

Even    then,    Robert     and     Roger    did    not    march 


The  Normans  235 

against  Castrogiovanni,  for  the  place  was  very  strong; 
but  they  took  hostages  of  the  Saracens,  lest  such 
evils  should  befall  again,  and  slowly  strengthened 
themselves  in  their  possessions.  In  Palermo  they 
built  two  fortresses,  the  one  on  the  site  of  the  mod- 
ern royal  palace  at  Porta  Nuova,  and  comprising  the 
Saracen  fortress  that  already  stood  there ;  and  still  a 
lordly  vaulted  room  is  pointed  out,  and  the  traveller  is 
told  that  after  the  siege  Count  Roger  chose  it  for  his 
own.  Also  the  duke  saw  that  the  poor  little  Church  of 
Saint  Mary  '  was  like  a  baker's  oven '  amid  the  splendid 
Saracen  palaces,  and  he  caused  it  to  be  torn  down,  and 
gave  great  sums  of  money  to  build  a  better  church  on 
the  spot ;  and  still  in  the  porch  of  the  later  cathedral 
one  may  see  the  pillars  of  the  mosque,  with  verses 
from  the  Koran  graven  in  the  cufic  character.  In 
the  last  months  of  the  year  1072  Robert  Guiscard, 
Duke  of  Apulia,  of  Calabria,  and  of  Sicily,  returned 
to  the  mainland  laden  with  spoil. 

While  Robert  and  Roger  were  conquering  Sicily,  the 
Normans  of  the  mainland  were  engaged  in  ceaseless 
dissensions  and  involved  in  the  complicated  history  of 
the  Papacy.  A  large  part  of  their  story  concerns  the 
doings  of  Richard  of  Capua  and  of  a  certain  William  of 
Montreuil,  to  whom  he  gave  his  daughter  in  marriage, 
who  quarrelled  with  his  father-in-law,  repudiated  his 
wife,  attempted  to  marry  the  widowed  Duchess  of  Gaeta, 
and  failing  in  this  plan  was  reconciled  with  Richard  and 


236  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

took  his  wife  back  ;  who  allied  himself  with  Pope  Alex- 
ander  the  Second  in  his  struggle  against  the  antipope 
Honorius,  at  one  time  commanding  a  force  of  several 
thousand  men,  and  who  would  have  continued  to  cause 
trouble  during  many  years  had  he  not  been  providentially 
removed  from  history  by  the  malarious  fever  of  the 
Roman  Campagna.  In  the  inextricable  confusion  of 
small  events  two  principal  figures  stand  out ;  that  of 
Richard,  determined  to  extend  his  principality  of  Capua, 
and  even  marching  upon  Rome  itself,  from  the  gates  of 
which  he  was  driven  back  by  the  appearance  of  the  Duke 
of  Tuscany  with  a  large  army,  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  gigantic  personality  of  Hildebrand,  soon  to  be  Pope 
Gregory  the  Seventh,  fighting,  as  only  he  knew  how  to 
fight,  for  the  independence  of  the  Papacy  and  of  the 
Church  itself.  It  would  be  fruitless  for  the  purposes 
of  the  present  work  to  follow  the  many  entangled 
threads ;  the  story  is  one  of  raids  and  counter-raids, 
of  ruined  crops  and  blazing  towns,  and  of  castles  won 
by  assault  or  betrayed  by  treachery.  It  ended  in  a 
solemn  and  peaceful  ceremony  at  Monte  Cassino  at  the 
v^ry  time  when  the  Normans  of  the  south  were  fight- 
ing under  the  walls  of  Palermo.  The  devout  and 
indefatigable  Abbot  Desiderius  had  built  the  great 
church  of  the  abbey,  and  at  its  consecration  by  Pope 
Alexander  himself  there  were  present  with  Richard  of 
Capua  all  the  great  Norman  and  Lombard  nobles  who 
had  refused  to  take  part  in  the  conquest  of  Sicily, 


The  Normans  237 

besides  a  vast  multitude  of  nobles  and  tenants  and 
countrymen,  clerks,  laymen,  monks  and  soldiers,  Cam- 
panians,  Apulians  and  Calabrians  who,  during  more  than 
a  week,  thronged  up  the  steep  mountain  side  to  pray  at 
the  tomb  of  the  holy  Benedict  and  to  receive  the  Pope's 
absolution  and  blessing.  The  splendid  basilica,  with 
its  lofty  nave  and  aisles,  its  double  ranks  of  columns, 
and  its  grand  choir,  in  the  midst  of  which  rose  the 
tomb  of  the  saint,  eight  steps  above  the  floor,  was 
totally  destroyed  by  a  great  earthquake  in  the  year 
1349.  Desiderius  had  spared  neither  pains  nor  treasure 
in  the  work,  and  had  brought  columns  from  Rome  and 
rich  marbles  from  other  parts  of  Italy,  and  had  called 
artists  together,  Latins,  Greeks,  and  even  Saracens,  from 
Constantinople  and  from  Alexandria.  Moreover,  a 
great  noble  of  Amalfi  had  ordered  the  bronze  doors  to 
be  cast  and  chiselled  in  Constantinople,  and  what  re- 
mains of  these  is  all  that  is  left  of  Desiderius'  abbey 
church. 

The  consecration  was,  however,  a  favourable  occa- 
sion for  an  interview  between  Richard  and  all  those 
who  were  jealous  of  the  house  of  Tancred,  and  it  is 
certain  that  Richard  of  Capua  profited  by  it  to  plan  his 
attack  upon  Apulia,  while  Gisulf  agreed  at  the  same 
time  to  make  a  raid  upon  the  western  coast,  from 
Policastro  to  Sant'  Eufemia.  The  surprise  and  disap- 
pointment of  the  malcontents  at  the  news  that  Palermo 
was  taken  may  be  more  easily  imagined  than  described, 


238  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

and  when  Duke  Robert  came  back  in  triumph  to 
Melfi  and  convoked  his  great  vassals,  more  than  one  of 
them  must  have  wished  that  he  had  been  with  the 
Guiscard  and  Roger  at  Palermo.  He  seems  to  have 
satisfied  himself  by  visiting  his  wrath  upon  the  Count 
of  Trani,  who  had  flatly  refused  to  send  any  help  for 
the  Sicilian  expedition,  and  who  at  first  declined  to  meet 
the  suzerain  at  Melfi.  Being  forced  to  do  so,  however, 
he  gave  haughty  answers  to  all  Robert's  questions  and 
commands,  and  the  duke  was  obliged  to  make  war  upon 
him.  It  was  during  this  short  struggle  that,  having 
taken  the  count  prisoner,  he  made  use  of  him  in 
besieging  the  castles  that  remained  loyal,  for  when 
the  defenders  began  to  shoot  arrows  and  hurl  stones 
from  the  ramparts,  Robert  set  the  count  himself, 
loaded  with  chains,  in  front  of  his  besieging  force,  and 
the  prisoner,  in  terror  for  his  life,  besought  his  own 
people  to  abstain  from  defending  themselves,  lest  they 
should  kill  him. 

As  for  Richard  of  Capua,  who  had  advanced  as  far  as 
Cannae  in  Apulia,  it  is  merely  recorded  that  when  he 
perceived  himself  opposed  by  Divine  Providence,  he 
quietly  returned  to  Capua.  Robert  pardoned  him  at 
the  time,  promising  himself  to  be  avenged  at  a  more 
convenient  season ;  and  when,  after  entirely  reducing 
the  south  to  submission,  he  forgave'  the  Count  of  Trani 
and  gave  him  back  most  of  his  possessions,  he  prepared 
to  make  war  against  the  Capuan  prince.  But  at  this 


The  Normans  239 

juncture  he  fell  dangerously  ill,  and  lay  long  between 
life  and  death  in  Bari ;  his  wife  Sigelgaita  herself  be- 
lieved that  he  was  at  his  last  gasp,  and  hastily  calling 
together  the  Norman  knights,  she  caused  them  to 
choose  for  her  husband's  successor  her  own  son,  the 
young  Roger,  to  the  exclusion  of  Bohemund,  the  duke's 
eldest  born  by  his  first  marriage.  After  this  election 
the  news  went  abroad  that  Robert  was  dead,  and  Greg- 
ory the  Seventh,  who  had  just  ascended  the  pontifical 
throne,  wrote  a  characteristic  letter  of  condolence  to 
Sigelgaita.  The  pontiff  spoke  of  the  death  of  Duke 
Robert,  the  most  beloved  son  of  Holy  Church,  as  a 
source  of  grief  irremediable  to  himself,  to  the  cardinals, 
and  to  the  Senate  of  Rome  ;  he  expressed  his  good  will 
to  the  widowed  duchess,  and  requested  her  to  bring  her 
son  to  Rome,  in  order  that  he  might  receive  from  the 
hands  of  the  Church's  head  those  possessions  which  his 
father  had  held  from  former  popes. 

At  this  point,  when  every  one  who  was  with  the  duke 
believed  that  he  was  about  to  expire,  and  when  even 
the  Pope  himself  believed  him  to  be  already  dead,  the 
Guiscard's  iron  constitution  prevailed  against  the  sick- 
ness ;  he  suddenly  was  better,  in  a  few  days  he  was 
out  of  danger,  and  in  an  incredibly  short  time  he  was 
completely  restored  to  health,  to  the  great  joy  of  his 
friends,  and  to  the  bitter  disappointment  of  his  enemies. 
As  the  Abb£  Delarc  says  in  the  closing  lines  of  his 
valuable  work,  the  Guiscard  was  still  to  live  twelve 


240  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

years,  astonishing  and  upheaving  Italy  and  Europe  from 
east  to  west  by  his  daring  deeds  and  by  the  surprising 
energy  of  his  restless  life. 

It  was  in  the  year  1073  that  Duke  Robert  fell  ill  and 
unexpectedly  recovered,  and  in  order  to  carry  on  the 
story  of  the  Normans  it  is  necessary  to  return  to 
Sicilian  ground,  following  for  a  while  Amari's  great 
history  of  the  Moslems  in  Sicily.  In  the  beginning 
of  the  year  1072,  immediately  after  the  fall  of  Palermo, 
Sicily  was  divided  into  three  parallel  zones  from  east 
to  west.  The  most  northerly  of  the  three  extended 
from  Messina  to  Palermo,  following  the  north  side  of 
the  Sicilian  range,  and  in  the  partition  of  the  island 
had  been  taken  by  Robert  himself ;  the  second  division 
followed  the  south  side  of  the  mountains,  and  was  sub- 
ject to  Count  Roger ;  the  third  and  southernmost  por- 
tion was  still  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  Saracens, 
excepting  the  cities  of  Catania  and  Mazzara,  which  Roger 
held,  and  this  domain  of  the  Saracens  was  equal  in 
extent  to  the  other  two.  Moreover,  Roger's  position 
was  weakened  by  the  fact  that  the  Moslems  held  the 
fortresses  of  Taormina  and  Trapani,  situated  respectively 
at  the  eastern  and  western  extremities  of  his  territory, 
by  the  necessity  of  supporting  garrisons  in  many  dif- 
ferent castles  at  the  same  time,  by  the  unproductiveness 
of  his  lands  as  compared  with  the  rest  of  the  island, 
and  by  his  obligation  to  fight  on  the  mainland  when 
required  to  do  so  by  his  brother  Robert. 


The  Normans  241 

These  circumstances  made  it  clear  from  the  first  that 
the  Moslems  might  resist  a  long  time,  and  if  they  had 
been  firmly  united,  the  issue  might  have  been  doubtful ; 
but  they  were  divided  among  themselves,  they  made 
the  mistake  of  opposing  themselves  separately  to  the  con- 
queror, and  he  took  their  strong  places,  one  by  one.  It 
has  often  been  said  that  the  history  of  the  Arabs  in  Sicily 
is  yet  to  be  written,  and  their  chief  historian,  the  learned 
Amari,  admits  that  in  the  whirlpool  of  their  national 
and  civil  wars  the  distinctions  between  the  successively 
dominating  parties  is  extremely  uncertain.  The  same 
writer  points  out  that,  if  they  had  been  unified,  the 
fall  of  Palermo  would  have  meant  the  conquest  of  the 
whole  island,  whereas  it  produced  little  or  no  impression 
upon  the  Saracens  of  the  south.  Furthermore,  the 
fact  that  the  Moslems  of  Noto,  which  comprises  all  the 
southeast  region,  had  been  in  a  sort  of  alliance  with 
Roger,  had  contributed  to  increase  their  strength  ;  and 
when  at  last  a  revolutionary  leader  arose  in  the  person 
of  the  Arab  Ben  Arwet,  he  found  such  materials  ready  as 
made  him  at  once  a  most  dangerous  adversary.  The 
man  was  the  last  Moslem  patriot  in  Sicily,  and  his  efforts 
to  restore  Mohammedan  independence  have  justly  been 
called  heroic.  Under  his  leadership  the  Saracens  were 
soon  in  arms  throughout  the  south  ;  from  the  ramparts 
of  numerous  castles  they  defied  the  Norman  cavalry, 
and  when  they  sallied  from  their  strongholds  they  skil- 
fully led  Roger's  troops  into  ambush.  Almost  wholly 

VOL.    II  R 


242  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

unprovided  with  siege  engines,  or  with  troops  accus- 
tomed to  such  operations,  the  Normans  were  forced  to 
fight  when  it  pleased  the  Moslems  to  face  them.  Roger, 
indeed,  strongly  fortified  the  heights  of  Calascibetta 
over  against  Castrogiovanni,  and  he  took  one  or  two 
other  strong  places ;  but  in  the  meantime  the  African 
Arabs  made  a  wild  raid  upon  the  Italian  coast  at  Nico- 
tera,  and  returning  landed  at  Mazzara  and  besieged 
the  castle  in  that  place  until  Roger  arrived  in  person 
and  drove  them  off.  In  those  years  Ben  Arwet  com- 
manded the  whole  province,  from  Syracuse  as  a  base, 
and  his  forces  were  continually  increasing.  Being 
obliged  to  return  to  Mileto,  Roger  appointed  Hugh 
of  Jersey  his  viceregent  in  Sicily,  and  placed  his  son 
Jourdain  in  command  of  the  troops  in  the  field,  enjoin- 
ing upon  both  to  avoid  a  pitched  battle  with  the  Moslems. 
But  neither  had  the  coolness  to  resist  the  temptation 
to  an  open  fight,  and  when  Ben  Arwet  sent  a  decoy 
party  to  forage  under  the  very  walls  of  Catania,  the 
young  Normans  rode  out  and  were  drawn  into  an 
ambush  where  Hugh  of  Jersey  was  killed,  and  whence 
Jourdain  barely  escaped  with  his  life. 

At  the  news  of  this  disaster  Roger's  anger  knew  no 
bounds,  and  he  arrived  in  Sicily  soon  afterwards  with 
such  an  army  as  Ben  Arwet  dared  not  face.  He  now 
advanced  directly  into  Noto,  and  as  it  was  harvest 
time  he  so  completely  destroyed  the  crops  as  to  pro- 
duce a  famine  in  the  following  year.  He  next  assailed 


The  Normans  243 

Trapani  in  the  West,  and  the  place  was  taken  at  a  bold 
stroke  by  his  son  Jourdain. 

The  city  of  Trapani  was,  and  still  is,  built  upon  the 
landward  end  of  the  low  sickle-shaped  promontory, 
whence  it  first  took  its  name ;  and  during  the  siege  the 
people  used  to  drive  out  a  herd  of  cattle  to  pasture 
on  the  outer  extremity,  for,  as  Roger  had  no  ships  with 
him,  the  point  was  completely  protected  by  the  sea,  and 
the  gate  of  the  city  that  looked  towards  it  was  only 
closed  at  night.  Saying  nothing  to  his  father,  Jour- 
dain took  a  hundred  men  with  him,  and  under  cover  of 
darkness  reached  the  point  by  means  of  small  boats, 
and  hid  his  party  among  the  rocks  near  the  city.  At 
dawn  the  gate  was  opened  for  the  herd  to  pass  out  as 
usual,  and  the  Normans  sprang  from  their  hiding-place 
and  rushed  towards  it.  In  a  moment  the  Moslems 
were  in  arms,  and  the  odds  against  the  assailants  were 
ten  to  one ;  yet  in  the  short  and  furious  struggle  the 
Normans  had  the  better,  and  without  attempting  to 
enter  the  city  they  returned  by  water,  taking  with  them 
the  captured  cattle.  The  assault  had  shown  the  inhab- 
itants what  might  happen  if  Roger  landed  a  larger 
force  on  that  side,  and  rather  than  risk  the  consequences 
of  further  resistance,  they  made  terms  and  submitted. 
Of  the  two  strong  places  at  the  opposite  ends  of  his 
dominions,  Roger  now  held  the  one,  but  Taormina  still 
remained  to  be  taken.  Roger  soon  afterwards  began 
the  siege  and  completely  surrounded  the  strong  place 


244  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

with  works  in  order  to  reduce  it  by  starvation.  Here 
he  almost  lost  his  life,  for  in  going  the  rounds  with  a 
handful  of  men  he  was  suddenly  caught  in  a  narrow 
way  by  a  party  of  the  enemy.  It  was  clear  that  he 
must  retrace  his  steps  or  be  killed ;  the  path  was  nar- 
row and  could  be  held  for  a  few  moments  by  one  man, 
and  a  devoted  follower,  named  Evisand,  sacrificed  his 
life  to  save  the  count.  He  fell  pierced  with  innumerable 
wounds  at  the  very  moment  when  the  Normans  came 
up  to  the  rescue,  and  Roger  buried  the  friend  who  had 
saved  him  with  royal  honours,  and  founded  a  church,  or 
a  convent,  in  memory  of  his  preservation,  and  for  the 
soul  of  his  preserver. 

After  a  siege  of  five  months,  Taormina  yielded  to 
starvation  and  surrendered.  But  the  war  was  far  from 
ended  yet,  and  nine  years  after  the  fall  cf  Palermo, 
Ben  Arwet  regained  possession  of  Catania,  apparently 
having  bribed  the  governor  of  the  place  to  admit  him, 
and  it  was  not  till  after  a  battle  and  a  short  siege 
that  Ben  Arwet  fled  to  Syracuse  by  night,  and  the  Nor- 
mans took  back  the  city.  And  now  that  same  Jour- 
dain,  trusting  in  his  own  strength  and  courage,  rebelled 
against  his  father,  and  began  to  occupy  certain  castles 
on  his  own  account ;  and  Roger,  affecting  to  attribute 
his  doings  to  the  heat  and  folly  of  youth,  bade  him 
come  with  his  friends  and  be  reconciled  before  he  had 
done  worse.  But  when  he  held  them  fast  he  made  a 
strict  inquiry,  and  he  put  out  the  eyes  of  twelve  of  his 


The   Normans 


son's  chief  associates,  and  sent  Jourdain  away  free,  but 
disgraced. 

The  war,  says  Amari,  proceeded  slowly,  because  at 
that  time  a  great  part  of  the  Norman  forces  were  with 
Duke  Robert  in  Greece.  For  during  those  years  the 
duke  had  grown  great.  Raymond,  the  Count  of  Pro- 


STAIRWAY   IN   COURTYARD   AT   TAOKM1NA 


vence,  had  taken  his  daughter  in  marriage,  and  on  the 
strength  of  such  a  great  alliance,  Robert  extended  his 
dominions  more  and  more,  and  invading  Romagna  and 
afterwards  Durazzo  beyond  the  Adriatic,  of  which 
doings  there  are  elaborate  accounts  in  the  monkish 
chronicles,  in  the  year  1082  he  carried  war  into  Bui- 


246  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

garia  and  won  much  glory  and  some  spoil,  but  little 
else.  In  the  following  year,  when  Henry  the  Fourth 
attempted  to  set  up  an  antipope  against  Gregory  the 
Seventh,  and  came  to  Rome  with  an  army,  Duke  Rob- 
ert went  up  from  the  south  like  a  whirlwind  and  burnt 
half  Rome ;  and  the  emperor  fled  before  him.  After 
that  he  returned  into  Apulia  and  began  to  make  great 
preparations  for  an  expedition  to  the  East ;  and  sailing 
away  with  a  fair  wind,  and  with  a  vast  number  of  ships, 
he  reached  Durazzo,  but  there  he  suddenly  fell  ill,  and 
died  in  the  month  of  July,  in  the  year  1084.  We 
know  little  of  the  manner  of  his  death,  for  the  chronicle 
merely  says  that  he  died,  and  that  his  wife  Sigelgaita, 
and  his  son  Roger  Bursa,  and  all  the  barons,  performed 
the  funeral  rites  with  due  honours ;  that  his  body  was 
brought  back  to  Italy  and  laid  to  rest  in  Venosa ;  and 
finally,  that  in  the  dispute  that  arose  between  Bohemund 
and  Roger  Bursa  for  the  succession,  Count  Roger  of 
Sicily  took  his  namesake's  part,  in  return  for  which 
service  he  received,  or  appropriated,  the  other  half  of 
Calabria  which  he  had  not  previously  received  from  his 
brother. 

It  was  during  the  dispute  about  Duke  Robert's 
succession,  that  Ben  Arwet  took  advantage  of  the 
disturbed  state  of  Southern  Italy  to  make  a  sudden 
attack  upon  Calabria.  In  August  or  September  of 
the  year  1085,  he  landed  by  night  at  Nicotera,  not 
twenty  miles  from  Roger's  favourite  city  of  Mileto, 


The  Normans  247 

and  carried  off  most  of  the  population  captive.  Falling 
upon  Reggio  next,  he  sacked  the  churches  of  Saint 
Nicholas  and  of  Saint  George,  destroying  the  statues 
and .  images ;  and  breaking  into  the  convent  of  Our 
Lady  at  Rocca  d'Asino,  near  by,  he  took  the  nuns 
with  him  to  Syracuse  and  distributed  them  among 
the  harems  of  the  chief  Moslems.  Roger's  wrath 
rose  at  the  outrage,  and  while  he  did  not  fail  to  pro- 
pitiate heaven  by  lavish  charity  to  the  poor  of  Messina, 
and  by  walking  barefoot  from  church  to  church  with 
monks  who  chanted  the  litanies,  he  gathered  his  forces 
for  a  great  effort.  On  the  twenty-fifth  of  May,  1086, 
he  fought  Ben  Arwet  in  the  harbour  of  Syracuse ; 
and  there,  says  the  monk,  the  devil  entered  into  the 
Moslem's  heart  to  drive  him  to  destruction,  for  when 
he  went  against  Roger's  ship  with  his  own,  he  was 
wounded  by  a  dart,  and  the  Great  Count  attacked  him, 
sword  in  hand,  and  he  tried  to  leap  to  another  vessel, 
but  fell  into  the  sea,  and  the  weight  of  his  armour 
bore  him  down,  and  he  was  drowned. 

From  May  to  October  the  Moslems  bravely  defended 
their  city ;  then  the  chief  men  took  Ben  Arwet's 
widow  and  his  son,  and  fled  to  Noto,  and  Syracuse 
surrendered.  After  this  Roger  took  Girgenti,  and  not 
much  later  impregnable  Castrogiovanni  fell  into  his 
hands  by  the  treachery,  or  conversion,  of  the  Governor 
Hamud.  He,  being  hard  pressed,  secretly  agreed 
to  embrace  Christianity,  led  his  best  forces  into  a 


248  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

preconcerted  ambush,  where  they  were  taken  unhurt, 
and  he  was  received  with  open  arms.  He  was  re- 
warded with  broad  lands  in  Calabria,  where  he  lived 
out  a  long  and  happy  life.  Butera,  on  the  south  coast, 
was  the  last  city  in  Sicily  that  stood  a  siege,  and  Noto 
was  the  last  to  capitulate,  in  the  month  of  February, 
1091,  the  date  that  marks  the  final  conquest  of  the 
island. 

After  reducing  a  rebellious  baron  on  the  mainland, 
Roger  now  set  sail  for  Malta,  and  in  spite  of  his  sixty 
years,  was  the  first  to  land,  with  only  thirteen  knights. 
After  a  skirmish  with  a  few  Moslems,  he  slept  upon 
the  beach,  awaiting  the  arrival  of  his  other  ships,  and 
on  the  morrow  he  attacked  the  Citta  Vecchia,  which 
yielded  almost  at  once ;  and  thus,  says  Amari,  he 
crowned  the  conquest  of  Sicily,  taking  Malta  himself, 
as  he  had  taken  Messina  in  person  thirty  years  earlier. 

I  cannot  but  think  that  the  comparative  peace  in  which 
the  Great  Count  ruled  Sicily  during  the  last  ten  years 
of  his  life  is  to  be  attributed  to  the  inborn  fatalism  of 
the  Moslems.  It  is  certain  that  they  never  made  any 
serious  attempt  to  regain  independence,  but  that,  on 
the  contrary,  they  served  bravely  and  loyally  in  Roger's 
armies.  Thousands  of  Saracens  fought  under  his 
standard  when  he  helped  his  nephew,  Duke  Roger, 
to  reduce  Cosenza,  and  in  1094  when  he  assisted  him 
in  repressing  the  dangerous  rebellion  of  William  of 
Grantmesnil  in  Castrovillari.  Roger  not  only  protected 


The  Normans 


249 


them,  left  them  full  liberty  in  their  religion,  and  al- 
lowed them  tribunals  of  their  own,  but,  according  to 
the  biographers  of  Anselm  of  Canterbury,  he  discour- 


cirrX  VECCHIA,  MALTA 


aged  their  conversion,  and  punished  Saracens  who 
embraced  Christianity,  fearing  perhaps  that  in  the 
great  movement  of  the  first  Crusade,  his  Moslem  sol- 
diers would  imitate  the  example  of  the  many  Christians 


250  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

who  followed  his  nephew  Bohemund  to  the  Holy  Land. 
As  is  well  known,  the  cautious  Norrnan  declined  to 
take  part  in  that  great  movement,  preferring  to  con- 
solidate his  power  at  home,  while  princes  and  kings 
and  people  went  out  to  fight  in  Palestine  for  an 
ideal  so  composite  that  its  pursuit  promised  gain 
to  the  greedy,  renown  to  the  fighting  man,  and  a 
martyr's  crown  to  the  ecstatic  Christian. 

Much  confusion  exists  with  regard  to  Roger's  mar- 
riages ;  I  have  adhered  to  Delarc's  view,  and  those 
who  prefer  to  suppose  that  Roger  was  thrice  married 
may  consult  the  elaborate  and  conclusive  notes  given 
by  the  learned  French  historian,  as  well  as  a  note  of 
Amari's,  which  goes  to  prove  that  Judith  took  the 
name  of  Eremberga  on  leaving  the  convent  of  Saint 
Evrault.  Be  that  as  it  may,  this  Judith-Eremberga, 
the  faithful  companion  of  so  much  hardship  and  of 
so  much  glory,  died  in  1089,  and  the  Great  Count 
soon  afterwards  married  Adelasia  or  Adelaide,  the 
daughter  of  one  of  the  great  nobles  of  Northern  Italy, 
and  became  by  her  the  father  of  King  Roger  the 
First  of  Sicily,  and  of  another  son,  who  was  older, 
but  died  in  infancy.  Judith-Eremberga's  only  son, 
Godfrey,  is  rarely  spoken  of,  is  supposed  to  have 
been  of  feeble  constitution,  and  either  died  young  or 
ended  his  life  in  a  monastery.  Jourdain  was  illegiti- 
mate. Roger  had  a  number  of  daughters,  one  of 
whom  he  married  to  the  king  of  Hungary,  another, 


NORMAN    PILGRIMS,    LA   CAVA 


250  The   Rulers  of  the  South 


nvcd  his  :  Bohemund  to  the  Holy  1 

well  known,  the  cautious  Norrnan  declined  to. 
take  .  oat  movement,  preferring  to  con- 

•r  at  home,    while    princes  and   kings 
and    people    went  'out    to    fight    in    Palestine    fo 

so  composite  that  its  pursuit  promised  gain 
to  the  greedy,  renown  to  the  fighting  man,  and  a 
martyr's  crown  to  the  ecstatic  Christian. 

Much  confusion  exists  with  regard  to  Roger's  mar- 
;    I   have   adhered   to   Delarc's  view,  and    those 
who  prefer  t-  >e  that  Roger  was  thrice  married 

may  consult  the  K!  conclusive  notes 

by  tli  a  note  of 

Amari's,   which   .  k    the 

name  of   .  ent   of    Saint 

Evrault.  ,  this    j 

the  faithful-   companion    o 

so  much    glory,  died  id    the    Great    (.' 

soon    afterwards    mame<l    Adelasia    i  ,    the 

daughter  of  one  of  the  great  nobl  orn  Italy, 

and    became    by  her    the    father  of    King    Roger    the 

First  of   Sicily,  and    of    another    son,  who  was    older, 

but    died    in    infancy.      Judith-Eremberga's    only    son, 

Godfrey,  is    rarely    spoken    of,    is    supposed   to    have 

of-  feeble  constitution,  and  either  died  young  or 

<i  kjs  life  in  a  monastery.       Jourdain  was  illegiti- 

Roger    had    a   number   of    daughters,    one   of 

whom  he  n^(&0&3W$-M^%famu 

AVAO  AJ   .ZMIflOJH    MAMflOH 


The  Normans  251 

Constance,  to  Conrad,  king  of  Rome,  the  emperor's 
son,  a  third  to  Raymond  of  Provence,  and  a  fourth 
to  Count  Robert  of  Clermont,  though  Philip  the 
First  of  France  had  asked  her  in  marriage  for  the 
sake  of  her  dowry. 

We  know  nothing  of  the  illness  that  ended  the 
great  fighter's  life.  He  died  at  nearly  seventy  years 
of  age  in  his  favourite  Mileto,  and  there  he  was  laid 
in  the  cathedral  he  had  built ;  but  centuries  later  an 
earthquake  overthrew  the  city  and  the  sanctuary,- and 
the  Great  Count's  sarcophagus  is  preserved  in  the 
national  museum  in  Naples. 

It  is  manifestly  impossible  to  continue  a  detailed 
account  of  the  Norman  domination  after  the  final 
success  of  Roger's  enterprise.  The  feudal  system 
had  now  taken  root  in  Europe,  and  the  enormous 
development  which  it  gave  to  individualities  in  the 
persons  of  the  semi-independent  imperial  and  royal 
vassals,  so  multiplies  the  threads  of  history  that 
every  reign  is  enveloped  in  a  web  of  crossing  and 
recrossing  lines.  The  Empire  contained  kingdoms, 
the  kingdoms  principalities,  the  principalities  com- 
prised counties,  and  there  was  not  a  count  who 
had  not  half  a  dozen  or  more  small  barons  and 
knights  who  held  land  under  him  by  feudal  tenure. 
It  is  possible  to  give  a  brief  and  clear  idea  of  a 
reign,  and  the  historian  may  sometimes  succeed  in  de- 
scribing the  condition  of  the  people  under  this  sover- 


252 


The  Rulers  of  the  South 


eign  or  that ;  but  a  work  that  should  contain  a  full 
and  accurate  account  of  the  doings  and  dissensions  of 
the  great  vassals,  and  of  the  efforts  made  by  king  or 


• 


FOUNTAIN    AT   TAORM1NA 


emperor  to  control  the  latter,  would  fill  many  volumes, 
and  could  only  be  produced  by  the  industry  of  a  life- 
time. In  the  minds  of  most  readers  of  ordinary  cul- 


The  Normans  253 

ture,  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century  is  filled  with 
the  romance  of  the  first  Crusade,  and  disturbed 
chiefly  by  the  quarrels  of  the  Emperor  Henry  the 
Fourth  with  the  Papacy.  So  far  as  the  Crusade  is 
concerned,  its  story,  from  a  Christian  point  of  view, 
is  too  well  known  to  need  telling  here ;  but  it  is 
interesting  to  find  that  Arabic  writers  of  early  times, 
such  as  Ibn-el-Athir,  regarded  the  general  attack 
upon  the  Holy  Land,  not  in  the  light  of  a  religious 
war,  but  as  the  culmination  of  a  great  race  struggle, 
retracing  its  causes  to  the  Norman  conquest  of  Sicily, 
to  the  Castilian  occupation  of  Toledo,  and  to  the 
raids  made  by  Italians  upon  the  African  coast.  Mo- 
hammedans could  indeed  have  understood  that  they 
themselves  might  fight  a  holy  war  for  the  recovery 
of  Mecca  and  of  their  own  places  of  pilgrimage ;  but 
their  contempt  for  'men  who  worship  crosses'  was 
then,  as  it  is  now,  profound  and  ineradicable,  and 
they  found  it  hard  to  believe  that  Christians  could  be 
really  in  earnest,  or  ready  to  face  danger  disinter- 
estedly, for  an  idea  which  appeared  absurdly  unrea- 
sonable to  the  mind  of  a  cultivated  Moslem.  The 
worst  of  it  is,  that  bravely  as  the  Christians  fought 
in  the  East,  they  gave  their  enemies  plentiful  reason 
for  the  supposition  that  the  idea  of  worldly  conquest 
was  intimately  connected  in  the  minds  of  most  Crusa- 
ders with  that  of  future  salvation.  Centuries  had 
passed  since  the  Moslems  had  set  out  from  Arabia 


254  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

to  convert  the  world  to  Islam,  and  to  keep  possession 
of  it  when  converted,  and  they  did  not  see  the  close 
resemblance  that  existed  between  their  own  religious 
wars  and  those  which  the  Christians  now  began  to 
wage  in  Asia  Minor;  but  they  had  not  forgotten  how 
they  had  driven  the  Western  people  before  them, 
even  to  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic,  and  they  felt  that 
in  the  tide  of  nations  the  wave  of  the  West  was  roll- 
ing back  upon  them.  In  a  sense,  therefore,  it  was 
true  that  the  Crusades  resulted  more  from  the  oppo- 
sition of  two  races  than  from  antagonism  of  two  re- 
ligions ;  and,  from  an  historical  point  of  view,  the 
struggle  which  began  when  Peter  the  Hermit  roused 
Europe  with  his  war-cry,  resulted  in  the  victory  of 
the  East,  and  came  to  its  inevitable  conclusion  when 
Mohammed  the  Second  stormed  Constantinople  in 
1453.  It  is  characteristic  of  the  times  that  while  the 
war  for  the  holy  places  created  a  certain  type  of 
chivalry  with  which  the  proudest  families  in  Europe 
now  delight  to  claim  alliance,  an  amalgamation  of 
Christians  and  Moslems  in  Sicily  and  the  south  of 
Italy  produced  a  civilization  and  an  art  not  only 
noble  in  themselves,  but  unlike  anything  of  which 
there  is  record  before  or  since.  It  may,  indeed,  be 
compared  to  the  civilization  of  the  Augustan  period, 
when  the  victorious  Roman  suffered  himself  to  laugh 
and  be  amused  by  the  conquered  Greek,  when  the 
Greek  language  became  fashionable  in  Roman  society, 


The   Normans 


255 


and  when  Greek  art,  such  as  it  had  survived,  was 
the  canon  of  good  taste.  But  that  was  rather  an 
imitation  than  an  amalgamation ;  in  letters,  Horace 
may  stand  for  the  type 
of  those  times,  and  in 
architecture  any  temple 
or  monument  of  the 
same  period  represents 
the  condition  of  art ; 
yet  Horace  is  to  the 
Greek  poets  as  the  re- 
mains of  the  temple  of 
Saturn  are  to  the  Par- 
thenon or  the  temples 
of  Paestum,  whereas 
Monreale,  the  Palatine 
Chapel,  and  the  Church 
of  the  Martorana,  built 
by  Mohammedans  for 
Christian  masters,  are 
all  beautiful  in  them- 
selves, and  in  a  manner 
that  did  not  exist  before 
them,  and  which  rap- 
idly changed,  or  degen- 
erated, in  the  following 
centuries.  Saracen-Nor- 
man art  has  a  place  by 


SARACEN-NORMAN    WINDOW   AT   SAN 
G1ULIANO 


256  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

itself  in  the  history  of  architecture ;  and  at  a  later 
period,  when  it  blended  in  turn  with  the  dominating 
art  of  the  Renascence,  the  result  was  something  still 
beautiful  and  never  seen  elsewhere.  In  Trapani,  for 
instance,  and  in  San  Giuliano,  there  are  remains  of 
doors  and  windows  that  exhibit  this  mixture  of  styles 
in  which  neither  the  Arab  nor  his  Norman  conqueror 
is  forgotten,  but  in  which  the  artistic  spirit  of  the 
early  sixteenth  century  finds  expression  also.  The 
south  received  strength  from  the  north,  and  the  north 
was  completed  and  polished  by  the  profound  learning 
and  minute  civilization  of  the  south  ;  and  neither  lost 
its  identity  in  the  other,  as  Greece  lost  hers  in  Rome, 
and  both  continued  to  live  for  centuries  in  an  indis- 
soluble union.  But  if  any  one  wishes  to  see  the 
northern  element  as  it  developed  in  Italy,  without 
amalgamation,  let  him  go  down  into  the  deep  old 
court  of  La  Cava,  in  the  wild  gorge  above  Salerno ; 
for  though  the  great  Benedictine  monastery  was 
founded  a  hundred  years  before  King  Roger's  day,  by 
a  Lombard,  the  cloistered  court  is  Norman,  and  of 
the  roughest  sort ;  and  far  below,  in  Gothic  vaults 
where  a  faint  glimmer  of  daylight  makes  the  glare 
of  the  wax  torches  ghostly,  there  lie  the  skulls  and 
the  bones  of  many  hundred  fighting  pilgrims  of  the 
early  days,  arranged  in  a  sort  of  reverent  order  by 
the  careful  monks.  One  great  skull  is  pierced 
through  the  forehead  by  a  thrust  of  a  blade  three 


The  Normans 


257 


fingers  broad,  clean  and  straight,  for  the  pilgrims  did 
not  always  die  a  natural  death ;  and  the  traveller  who 
pauses  to  gaze  upon  the  cloven  head  may  think  of 
those  forty  Normans  who  put  an  army  to  flight,  and 


BURIAL-PLACE   OF   THE    NORMAN    PILGRIMS,    AT    LA   CAVA 

saved  Salerno  long  ago.  The  place  has  not  the 
majesty  of  Monte  Cassino,  the  mother  abbey  of  the 
Benedictines ;  it  is  wild,  rude,  and  romantic,  an  abode 
of  warlike  ghosts  and  the  war-worn  wrecks  of  dead  men, 
and  the  peaceful  monastery  above  is  the  work  of  a  later 

VOL.    II  S 


258  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

age.  There  is  nothing  in  Sicily  like  La  Cava.  The 
cathedrals  of  the  Norman  kings  are  splendid  with  gold 
and  alive  with  sunshine,  and  the  tender  traceries  of 
the  south  soften  the  bold  spring  of  arch  and  vault, 
but  the  grim  and  grotesque  mummied  figures  in  the 
miniature  catacombs  of  the  Capuchin  Convent,  near 
Palermo,  could  never  have  been  set  in  their  nar- 
row niches  by  northern  hands.  There  is  something 
in  Palermo  that  reminds  one  of  Constantinople,  a 
similarity  of  circumstances,  with  a  renewal  of  the 
conditions  in  which  they  have  taken  place.  In  the 
East  the  capital  of  Christian  emperors  was  turned 
in  a  day  to  the  use  of  Moslem  sultans,  and  the 
victors  used  the  hands  and  eyes  of  the  vanquished 
to  make  mosques  of  churches,  to  build  a  minaret 
beside  every  dome,  and  to  adorn  the  lordly  re- 
treats of  Asiatic  idleness  and  luxury.  And  still  the 
Greek  is  at  home  in  the  great  city  where  he  has 
been  so  long  in  subjection.  In  Palermo,  it  was  the 
African  who  went  down  before  a  Christian  conqueror, 
whose  mosques  were  turned  into  churches  again,  whose 
palaces  of  delight  became  the  abodes  of  fighting 
kings,  to  whom  all  idleness  was  strange,  and  all  lux- 
ury new.  But  still,  after  eight  centuries  of  change, 
renewal,  and  decay,  the  hawk-eyed,  thin-lipped  Saracen 
treads  the  streets  of  the  royal  city  with  a  grace  that 
is  not  European,  and  a  quiet  dignity  not  bred  in  the 
blustering  north ;  while  in  that  beautiful  land  of  con- 


The  Normans  259 

tradictions  you  can  visit  no  village  nor  hamlet  with- 
out seeing  a  score  of  handsome  Norman  children, 
with  bright  blue  eyes  and  yellow  hair,  playing  little 
Eastern  games  under  the  Sicilian  sun,  and  chattering 
an  Italian  dialect  that  is  motley  with  Norman  and 
Arabic  and  Spanish  words.  It  is  not  the  language 
of  the  often  conquered,  upon  which  many  successive 
languages  have  been  imposed,  but  rather  the  mixed 
speech  of  many  conquering  races,  in  a  country  where 
each  has  ruled  in  turn,  and  where  it  is  hard  to  say 
which  has  left  the  deeper  mark. 

It  cannot  have  been  very  different  in  the  days  when 
King  Roger  was  a  little  child,  and  his  mother  watched 
over  him  and  ruled  for  him,  when  he  alone  was  left  to 
her,  to  be  the  great  survivor  of  Tancred's  race.  There 
is  not  much  to  tell  of  those  times,  save  that  a  woman 
held  easily  what  the  Greek  count  had  spent  a  lifetime 
in  getting  by  the  sword.  Fate  worked  for  the  young 
king  until  he  could  go  out  and  fight  for  himself.  The 
Guiscard's  son,  Roger  Bursa,  lived  but  a  short  life  and 
left  a  feeble  son,  William  of  Apulia,  as  duke  in  his 
stead,  who  died  prematurely,  and  without  male  issue. 
He  was  scarcely  in  his  grave  when  Roger  of  Sicily,  son 
of  the  Great  Count,  sailed  up  to  Salerno  with  his  galleys, 
convoked  the  Norman  nobles,  obtained  an  investiture 
from  the  Holy  See,  and  took  Apulia  for  himself ;  and 
three  years  afterwards,  on  Christmas  Day,  1 1 30,  he  was 
crowned  King  of  Sicily  at  Palermo,  in  the  chapel  of 


260 


The  Rulers  of  the  South 


Santa  Maria  1'Incoronata,  barbarously  destroyed  by  the 
bombardment  of    1860.     It  was  on  this  spot  that  the 

small  church  of 
Saint     Gregory 
once     stood, 
which     Count 
Roger      c  o  m- 
pared  to  an  oven 
amidst  the    Sara- 
cen    palaces     that 
surrounded    it,   and 
which  he  ordered  to 
be   pulled    down    and 
rebuilt,    and    here    for 
two     centuries     and     a 
half  each  king  of  Sicily 
was  crowned.     The  little 
that  remains  of  it   stands 
by  the  northwest  tower  of 
the  cathedral. 

Gibbon  accuses  King  Roger 
of   gratifying  his  ambition  by 
the  vulgar    means    of  violence 
and    artifice,    and    goes   on    to 
**  say  that  when  he  wished  to  be 

a  king,  the  pride  of  Anacletus, 
the     Jewish     Pierleone's     anti- 

MUMMY  IN  THE  VAULTS  OF  THE 

CAPUCHIN  CONVENT,  PALERMO       pope,    was    pleased    to    confer 


The  Normans  261 

a  title  which  the  pride  of  the  Norman  had  stooped 
to  solicit.  The  judgment  of  the  great  historian  is 
severe,  and  may  well  be  modified  by  most  readers. 
Roger  was  the  survivor  of  the  house  of  Tancred  in 
Italy,  and  he  knew  that  he  must  keep  his  dominions 
free,  or  lose  himself  and  his  subjects.  The  investi- 
ture of  the  Holy  See  was  necessary,  and  he  was  in 
no  position  to  judge  the  claims  of  the  ruling  pontiff, 
Pope,  or  antipope.  Innocent  the  Second  was  elected, 
indeed,  but  was  long  a  fugitive,  while  Anacletus  held 
the  Vatican  by  the  will  of  the  powerful  Pierleone ;  but 
when  the  Emperor  Lothair  and  Innocent  joined  hands 
with  Pisa  to  excommunicate  and  destroy  the  Sicilian 
king,  Roger  fought  for  his  life  as  well  as  his  crown. 
Driven  back  at  first  into  Sicily,  he  returned  in  wrath, 
destroyed  the  emperor's  newly  invested  Duke  of  Apulia, 
and  terminated  a  war  that  lasted  nine  years  by  taking 
Pope  Innocent  prisoner  at  San  Germane,  near  Monte 
Cassino.  With  the  devotion  of  fervent  Catholics  he 
and  his  captains  humbly  knelt  down  at  the  feet  of  their 
captive ;  but  it  was  with  the  cold  tenacity  of  Tancred's 
race  that  Roger  dictated  to  the  pontiff  the  terms  of  a 
peace  which  invested  himself  and  his  successors  forever 
with  the  kingdom  of  Sicily,  the  Duchy  of  Apulia,  and 
the  principality  of  Capua.  The  reconciliation  of  the 
king  and  the  Pope,  says  Gibbon,  in  sarcastic  comment, 
was  celebrated  by  the  eloquence  of  Bernard  of  Clair- 
vaux,  who  now  revered  the  title  and  virtues  of  the  king 


262 


The  Rulers  of  the  South 


of  Sicily ;  but  with  those  who  have  some  acquaintance 
with  Saint  Bernard's  character,  the  praise  of  the  saint 
will  outweigh  the  contempt  of  the  historian,  and  we  can 
admit  without  prejudice  that  King  Roger  was  a  brave 
and  honourable  man  for  his  times,  such  as  they  were. 
From  him,  then,  dates  that  kingdom  of  Sicily  which 


TOWER    OF    KING    ROGER,    AT   CASTROGIOVANNI 

was  divided  after  the  Sicilian  Vespers,  and  became  the 
Two  Sicilies  of  later  history. 

That  he  did  much,  if  not  all  that  he  might  have  done, 
for  the  lands  he  ruled,  there  is  ample  evidence  in  his- 
tory and  in  monument ;  but  the  greatest  of  his  doings 
was  that  amalgamation  of  races  which  took  place  in  his 


The  Normans  263 

reign.  His  Moslem  subjects  were  faithful  to  him  and 
fought  for  him,  even  against  Moslems,  and  if  it  was  by 
their  help  that  he  overcame  the  Pope  at  San  Germane, 
it  was  by  their  arms  also  that  he  took  Tripoli,  the 
strong  Mohammedan  city  of  the  African  coast ;  and  in 
the  fleet  of  the  Sicilian  admiral  George  of  Antioch, 
which  received  the  submission  of  Corfu  and  momenta- 
rily wrested  all  Greece  from  the  enfeebled  hold  of  Con- 
stantinople, there  were  as  many  free  Saracens  as  there 
were  Christians.  That  there  was  an  element  of  fear  in 
the  Moslem  subjection  is  true,  and  the  eight-sided  tower 
of  King  Roger  still  frowns  over  Castrogiovanni,  the  last 
great  stronghold  of  the  Mohammedans,  to  testify  to  the 
strength  of  his  hand ;  but  there  was  much  loyalty  also 
in  the  Saracens'  obedience,  and  we  need  not  confound 
submission  with  servility,  nor  fear  with  cowardice. 

So  far  as  King  Roger's  conduct  during  the  second 
Crusade  is  concerned,  we  know  not  whether  to  ascribe 
it  to  a  certain  consideration  for  his  Mohammedan  sub- 
jects, or  to  his  apprehension  of  losing  them ;  be  that  as 
it  may,  he  imitated  Count  Roger  in  quietly  refusing  to 
join  the  armies  of  the  Cross,  and  while  the  most  glorious 
armament  of  the  century  was  divided  by  the  dissension 
of  its  leaders,  decimated  by  disease,  and  at  last  reduced 
to  a  remnant  by  the  swords  of  the  Seljuks,  King  Roger 
was  extending  his  dominions,  increasing  his  wealth,  and 
preparing  for  a  war  which  he  knew  could  not  be  long 
avoided.  When  Lewis  the  Seventh  of  France  was  re- 


264  The   Rulers  of  the  South 

turning  from  Jerusalem,  disappointed  and  humiliated  by 
tlje  failure  of  the  holy  enterprise,  and  distracted  by  do- 
mestic troubles,  he  was  almost  captured  on  the  high  seas 
by  treacherous  Greeks,  and  was  rescued  from  what  might 
have  proved  an  ignominious  captivity  by  the  timely  ap- 
pearance of  the  Norman  fleet,  which  had  lately  ravaged 
the  coasts  of  Greece  ;  and  being  brought  to  Palermo  he 
was  royally  entertained  and  sent  forward  on  his  journey 
by  King  Roger.  With  something  like  old  Scandinavian 
daring,  the  Admiral  George  sailed  up  the  Hellespont, 
dropped  anchor  with  his  galleys  at  the  entrance  to  the 
Golden  Horn,  and  shot  a  flight  of  arrows  tipped  with  sil- 
ver into  the  imperial  gardens ;  but  the  Emperor  Manuel's 
anger  soon  avenged  the  taunt,  George  lost  nineteen  of 
his  galleys  on  his  homeward  voyage,  Corfu  yielded  to 
the  emperor  after  a  brave  defence,  the  Eastern  Empire 
was  in  arms,  and  King  Roger's  last  war  had  begun. 
While  Manuel  himself  fought  the  Hungarians  and  the 
Turks  in  the  East,  he  prepared  a  fleet,  an  army,  and  a 
kingdom's  ransom  in  treasure  to  win  back  the  Norman's 
possessions.  Before  he  was  ready  to  invade  the  West, 
however,  King  Roger  had  breathed  his  last.  He  died 
after  a  long  illness,  which  some  have  called  consumption, 
but  which  others  have  attributed  to  excesses :  his  last 
years,  during  which  the  conduct  of  his  wars  was  in- 
trusted to  lieutenants,  were  spent  in  close  intercourse 
with  the  wise  men  and  learned  Arabians  he  had  at- 
tracted to  his  court,  chief  among  whom  was  the  geogra- 


The  Normans 


265 


pher  Edrisi,  whose  greatest  work,  composed  under  the 
direction  of  the  king  himself,  was  called  '  the  book  of 
Roger,  the  delight  of  him  that  journeys  through  the 
world,'  and  was  completed  a  few  months  before  the 


COURT    IN    THE    MONASTERY    OF    LA    CAVA 

king's  death.  It  is  said  that  the  composition  of  this 
great  book  occupied  no  less  than  fifteen  years,  during 
which  hardly  a  day  passed  on  which  the  king  did  not 
discuss  some  subject  connected  with  it,  and  during 
which  he  explored,  in  the  society  of  his  learned  Ara- 


266  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

bians,  every  department  of  known  science.  The  book 
has  remained  a  vast  repository  of  learning,  and  a  chief 
authority  for  the  times,  reflecting  no  small  glory  upon 
the  sovereign  who  presided  over  its  compilation. 

The  great  map  of  the  world  which  Roger  caused  to  be 
engraved  upon  a  disk  of  silver  weighing  between  three 
and  four  hundred  pounds  has  been  fully  described,  but 
it  is  needless  to  say  that  it  disappeared  in  the  disturb- 
ances of  later  times  ;  upon  it  were  engraved  '  the  seven 
climates  with  their  regions  and  townships,  their  coasts 
and  their  tablelands,  their  gulfs,  seas,  springs,  and  rivers, 
their  inhabited  and  uninhabited  lands,  their  highroads 
measured  in  miles,  and  the  distances  by  sea  from  port  to 
port.'  It  is  even  said  that  the  particular  description  of 
this  plate  in  the  Arabic  language  may  have  been  the 
work  of  King  Roger  himself ;  it  is  at  least  certain  that 
he  deserves  much  credit  for  it.  He  had  founded  a  sort 
of  academy  at  Palermo,  over  which  he  presided,  and  of 
which  the  perpetual  secretary  was  descended  from  the 
khalifs  of  Cordova.  Owing  to  the  king's  death  the  book 
was  not  translated  into  Latin  at  the  time,  but  the  seven 
centuries  that  elapsed  before  a  translation  made  it 
accessible  to  ordinary  scholars  rather  increased  than 
diminished  the  fame  which  it  was  to  bestow  upon  its 
royal  compiler.  It  would  be  strange  if  the  churchmen 
of  that  day  had  not  found  fault  with  the  sovereign  who 
surrounded  himself  with  Moslems,  and  whose  most  in- 
timate associate  was  an  Arabian,  and  indeed  the  priests 


MOSAIC  OF  CHRIST   CROWNING   KING   ROGER 
Church  of  the  Martorana,  Palermo 


The  Rulers  of  the  South 

ry  department  of  known  science.     The  book 

.ist  repository  of  learning,  and  a  chief 

.rity  for  the  times,  reflecting  no  small  glory  upon 

reign  who  presided  over  its  compilation. 

•  great  map  of  the  world  which  Roger  caused  to  be 

ivcd  upon  a  disk  of  silver  weighing  between  three 

>ur  hundred  pounds  has  been  fully  described,  but 

needless  to  say  that  it  disappeared  in  the  disturb- 

of  later  times  ;  upon  it  were  engraved  'the  seven 

with  their  regions  and  townships,  their  coasts 

is,  their  gulfs,  seas,  'springs,  and  rivers, 

their  inh  \abited  lands,  their  highroads 

.?s  by  sea  from  port  to 
ription  of 

in  the  Ar.:  e  muy  have  been  the 

-•tain  that 

ie  had  founded  a  sort 

of  academy  at  Palermo,  over  which  h<  nd  of 

which  the  perpetual  -  .scended-from  the 

khalifs  of  Cordova.  Owing  to  the  king's  death  the  book 
was  not  translated  into  Latin/  at  the  time,  but  the  seven 
centuries  that  elapsed  before  a  translation  made  it 
accessible  to  ordinary  scholars  rather  increased  than 
diminished  the  fame  which  it  was  to  bestow  upon  its 
royal  compiler.  It  wx>uld  be  strange  if  the  churchmen 
,  of  that  day  had  not  found  fault  with  the  sovereign  who 

surrounded  himself  with  Moslems,  and  whose  m< 

,H300fl  OMHLOHIMWOflOjTZtflHq  rlO  OIA30M 
timate  associate  was  an  Arabian,  and  indeed  t 

.jsn«iottiM  aril  Jo  rioiuriO 


The  Normans  267 

and  monks  said  loudly  that  the  king  was  little  better 
than  a  Moslem  himself.  But  the  Moslems  praised 
him  as  their  Mecaenas,  describing  the  magnificence  of 
his  palaces  and  gardens,  the  joyous  life  men  led  at  his 
court,  and  the  abundance  of  golden  wine,  which  seems 
not  to  have  shocked  the  pious  Mohammedans  of  Sicily 
in  that  day.  And  true  it  is  that  Roger  both  protected 
and  restored  the  arts,  and  that  if  he  filled  his  coffers  by 
Norman  means,  he  spent  his  wealth  royally  in  beauti- 
fying his  favourite  cities  and  in  the  encouragement  of 
learning. 

The  fortunes  of  the  house  of  Tancred  really  culmi- 
nated in  the  reign  of  King  Roger,  declined  under 
William  the  Bad,  improved  under  William  the  Good, 
the  latter's  son,  and  then  vacillated,  after  the  failure  of 
the  legitimate  succession,  until  they  became  involved 
with  the  destiny  of  the  Empire  under  Henry  the  Sixth 
and  Frederick  the  Second,  of  Hohenstaufen.  Before 
going  on  to  give  a  brief  sketch  of  those  changes,  I  shall 
endeavour  to  explain  very  clearly  the  connexion  be- 
tween the  race  of  Tancred  and  King  Roger's  succes- 
sors, since  it  was  in  virtue  of  this  connexion  that 
they  claimed  the  crown  of  Sicily  for  centuries  after 
his  death. 

Roger  the  Great  Count  was  the  youngest  son  of 
Tancred  of  Hauteville.  Roger's  eldest  son  died  an 
infant,  and  was  succeeded  by  Roger,  the  first  king. 

King  Roger's  eldest  son,  Roger,  grew  to  manhood, 


268 


The  Rulers  of  the  South 


but  died  before  his  father,  who  was  succeeded  by  his 
second  son,  William  the  First,  the  Bad. 

William   the    First   was    succeeded   by    William    the 
Second,  the  Good,  who  left  no  heir. 


m 


TRIANGULAR   COURT    IN   THE    MONASTERY    OF    LA    CAVA 

King  Roger's  eldest  son,  Roger,  who  died  before 
his  father,  left  a  natural  son,  called  Tancred. 

William  the  Second  was  succeeded  by  this  Tancred. 

Tancred  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  the  infant 
William  the  Third. 

King    Roger   had    a   daughter,   Constance,    sister  of 


The  Normans  269 

William  the  First.  She  married  the  Emperor  Henry 
the  Sixth.  He  claimed  the  crown  for  her,  and  deposed 
and  probably  killed  the  infant  William  the  Third. 

William  the  Third  was  therefore  succeeded  by  Henry 
the  Sixth  of  Hohenstaufen. 

Henry  the  Sixth  was  succeeded  by  his  only  son,  the 
Emperor  Frederick  the  Second  of  Hohenstaufen,  who 
was  the  grandson  of  King  Roger. 

Frederick  the  Second  was  succeeded  by  his  second 
son,  Conrad. 

Conrad  was  succeeded  by  his  only  son,  Conradin,  a 
young  boy,  whose  uncle  Manfred,  a  natural  son  of 
Frederick  the  Second,  was  regent,  and  took  the  crown. 

Manfred  was  killed  in  battle  at  Benevento.  He  left 
one  daughter,  Constance,  married  to  Peter  the  Third  of 
Aragon. 

Conradin  succeeded  his  uncle  Manfred,  but  was 
taken  prisoner  by  Charles  of  Anjou,  and  was  executed 
in  Naples. 

Conradin  was  succeeded  by  Charles  of  Anjou, 
brother  of  Lewis  the  Ninth  of  France,  known  as  Saint 
Lewis. 

Charles  of  Anjou  lost  Sicily  in  the  revolution  of  the 
Sicilian  Vespers,  and  the  Sicilians  elected  Peter  the 
Third  of  Aragon  for  their  king,  because  he  was  married 
to  Constance,  great-great-granddaughter  of  King  Roger, 
and  also  the  last  heiress  of  the  house  of  Hohenstaufen. 

Peter   the  Third   was   succeeded   by   a  long  line  of 


270  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

Aragonese  kings,  the  second  of  whom,  after  him,  was 
his  second  son,  King  Frederick  the  Second  of  Sicily, 
often  confounded  with  the  Emperor  Frederick  the 
Second,  his  great-grandfather. 

Now,  as  Ferdinand  the  '  Catholic,'  whose  queen  was 
Isabella,  was  of  the  united  houses  of  Aragon  and  Cas- 
tile, he  also  inherited  the  Norman  blood,  which  through 
him  was  transmitted  to  his  grandson,  Charles  the  Fifth, 
of  the  house  of  Austria,  and  so  on  through  all  the 
Spanish  dynasties  to  the  present  day.  About  nine 
hundred  years  have  passed  since  Tancred  of  Hauteville 
dealt  his  famous  thrust  at  the  wild  boar,  and  though  his 
house  gave  Sicily  no  long  and  unbroken  line  of  kings, 
yet  the  blood  of  the  Norman  gentleman  is  in  the  veins 
of  almost  every  royal  race  in  Europe. 

My  readers  will  not  have  lost  patience  over  this  page 
of  genealogy,  which  makes  clear  a  point  too  often  left 
in  obscurity,  namely,  that  with  the  exception  of  Charles 
of  Anjou's  episodic  reign  in  Sicily,  and  of  Garibaldi's 
forcible  seizure  of  the  island  in  order  to  found  a  repub- 
lic, which  rather  unexpectedly  turned  into  a  kingdom, 
and  excepting  the  seven  years'  reign  granted  to  a  Duke 
of  Savoy  by  the  absurd  peace  of  Utrecht  in  1713,  the 
succession  to  the  kingdom  really  continued  on  the 
strength  of  the  Norman  blood  down  to  1860,  the  de- 
scent to  the  Bourbons  being  traced  through  Anne  of 
Austria,  wife  of  Lewis  the  Thirteenth  of  France  and 
sister  of  Philip  the  Fourth  of  Spain.  By  its  alliance 


The  Normans  271 

with  the  house  of  Hapsburg  the  house  of  Savoy  may 
really  claim  as  much  Norman  blood  as  the  deposed  king 
of  Naples. 

I  shall  now  return  to  the  task  of  briefly  outlining  the 
reigns  of  Roger's  successors. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  his  son  and  successor,  Will- 
iam, afterwards  surnamed  the  Bad,  should  have  really 
been  more  a  Mohammedan  than  a  Christian  in  belief, 
in  character,  and  in  manners.  He  had  been  brought 
up  chiefly  by  learned  Arabians  in  the  customs  and  luxu- 
ries of  what  was  in  reality  an  Eastern  court.  Amari 
describes  him  as  indolent,  fierce,  proud,  and  avaricious, 
and  suggests  that  his  admiral,  Majo  of  Bari,  personified 
the  Sicilian  court  with  all  its  sins,  while  even  the  Mos- 
lems themselves  attribute  to  the  evil  character  of  the 
king  and  of  his  general  the  disturbances  which  marked 
the  beginning  of  William's  reign.  That  he  lived  the  life 
of  an  Arab  emir  can  hardly  be  denied ;  his  palace  was 
the  abode  of  an  Eastern  harem,  and  both  were  directed, 
if  not  controlled,  by  Moslem  eunuchs  hateful  to  the  peo- 
ple. It  must  be  admitted  that  although,  he  repressed 
sedition  in  Sicily  itself  with  wisdom  and  justice,  he  dealt 
cruelly  with  insurgents  in  Calabria  and  Apulia.  He 
was  full  of  contradictions,  as  men  often  are  who  have 
been  educated  against  their  natural  tastes.  He  was 
slothful,  but  when  roused  he  was  desperately  brave ;  he 
was  capricious,  but  he  could  be  wise ;  he  was  kind,  but 
he  could  be  ruthless.  In  a  community  of  upright  and 


272  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

virtuous  men  he  would  have  deserved  to  be  called  the 
Bad ;  but  in  his  own  times  he  earned  the  appellation  by 
his  unpopularity  rather  than  by  his  surprising  wicked- 
ness, and  he  cannot  be  held  responsible  for  the  long 
struggle  between  the  Emperor  Barbarossa  and  the 
Emperor  Manuel,  which  had  its  origin  when  he  was  a 
youth,  and  ended  after  his  death.  King  Roger  was  still 
alive  when  Manuel  took  Bari  and  Brindisi.  King  Will- 
iam forced  him  to  conclude  an  honourable  treaty  a  year 
after  Roger's  death,  and  Sicily  enjoyed  the  benefits  of 
a  thirty  years'  peace,  while  Europe  was  convulsed  by 
the  quarrels  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  and  the  Holy 
See.  The  Vatican  received  the  ambassadors  of  the 
East,  who  almost  returned  to  the  ancient  allegiance  of 
Constantinople  and  to  the  unity  of  the  Eastern  and 
Western  churches,  but  to  the  indescribable  mortification 
of  Manuel,  Pope  Alexander  the  Third  reconciled  him- 
self with  Barbarossa,  declared  that  the  separation  of  the 
churches  was  final,  and  excommunicated  the  Emperors 
of  the  East. 

The  excommunication  may  or  may  not  have  affected 
the  spiritual  welfare  of  the  warlike  Greek ;  there  can  be 
no  doubt  but  that  the  alliance  of  the  Pope  with  Barba- 
rossa put  a  stop  to  Manuel's  reconquest  of  the  West,  and 
that  Venice,  which  had  temporarily  withdrawn  from  the 
strife,  took  the  offensive  again  as  soon  as  it  was  evident 
that  in  so  doing  she  could  find  herself  on  the  stronger 
side.  Manuel  poured  his  armies  and  his  gold  upon  the 


The  Normans  273 

eastern  coast  of  Italy,  and  such  was  the  strength  of  the 
one  and  the  persuasion  of  the  other  that  the  hosts  of 
the  Emperor  Frederick  were  twice  driven  back  from  the 
walls  of  Ancona ;  but  no  sooner  had  the  Pope  taken  a 
decided  course  of  action  than  Ancona  returned  to  the 
imperial  allegiance.  Venice  descended  with  a  fleet  of 
one  hundred  galleys,  and  the  Normans  of  the  south  com- 
pleted the  destruction  of  the  Greeks  with  their  swords. 
The  thirty  years'  peace  was  signed,  and  it  was  long 
before  Manuel  renewed  his  quarrel  with  the  emperor. 
William  had  already  entered  into  the  Pope's  good 
graces,  and  a  series  of  victories  against  the  African 
Arabs  increased  his  credit  with  the  Holy  See.  That  he 
attempted  even  by  bribery  to  prevent  the  coronation  of 
Frederick  Barbarossa  in  Rome  is  more  than  probable, 
for  in  the  riot  which  was  stirred  up  by  that  ceremony 
the  imperial  soldiers  fell  upon  the  Roman  people  with 
their  drawn  swords,  crying  out  that  they  would  give 
German  steel  for  Arabian  gold. 

William's  successes  in  Africa  were  short-lived  ;  the 
garrisons  he  placed  in  the  conquered  towns  sorely 
oppressed  the  Arabs,  and  a  Moslem  patriot  of  Sfax 
roused  his  fellow-citizens  to  the  destruction  of  their 
oppressors.  William  retorted  by  the  cruel  execution 
of  a  hostage,  and  the  African  towns  replied  by  some- 
thing like  a  general  rising.  William  sent  twenty 
galleys  to  reduce  the  insurrection,  and  merciless 
butchery  restored  his  power  for  a  while  ;  but  a  general 


274  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

movement  of  the  Arabians  which  extended  as  far  as 
Morocco  was  prepared,  the  Arabs,  or  Bedouins,  dug 
wells  along  the  proposed  line  of  march,  and  during 
three  whole  years  stored  up  grain  by  plastering  the 
sheafs  of  wheat  with  clay,  and  Spain  joined  Africa  in 
manning  a  fleet  of  seventy  galleys.  Before  such  a 
force  Tunis  soon  fell,  and  the  Christian  garrison  was 
bidden  to  choose  between  death  •  and  Mohammed's 
creed.  In  other  cities  the  Christians  shut  themselves 
up  in  the  forts  and  prepared  for  a  long  resistance,  and 
months  passed  before  the  Sicilian  fleet,  which  was 
engaged  in  the  Balearic  Islands,  could  come  to  the 
rescue.  But  under  the  walls  of  Mehdia  it  was  put  to 
flight  by  a  few  Arab  vessels;  the  treacherous  Majo 
brought  word  to  King  William  that  the  cities  of  Africa 
were  amply  provisioned;  and  when  the  unfortunate 
garrisons  had  devoured  their  horses,  they  only  escaped 
slaughter  by  the  magnanimity  of  their  foes.  Majo  lost 
his  life  in  the  first  outbreak  of  a  revolution  in  which 
every  member  of  the  house  of  Tancred  took  part ; 
King  William  was  taken  prisoner  in  the  council 
chamber,  and  the  insurgents  divided  among  them- 
selves the  women  of  his  harem  and  the  accumulated 
treasure  of  King  Roger;  the  infuriated  Normans,  not 
satisfied  with  Majo's  death,  slew  all  the  Moslem 
eunuchs  of  the  palace  and  slaughtered  the  Mos- 
lems in  the  streets;  but  discord  soon  broke  out  in 
their  own  ranks,  the  bishops  appealed  to  the  populace 


MOORISH    PALACE  OF   LA  ZISA,    PALERMO 


274  The  Rulers  of  the 

movement  of   the  Arabians  which  extendec 
Morocco  was   prepared,  the  Arabs,  or   Bedouins,  dug 
wells  along  the   proposed   line   of   march,  and 
three  whole   years  stored  up  grain  by  plastering  the 
sheafs  of  wheat  with  clay,  and  Spain  joined  Africa  in 
manning   a   fleet   of   seventy   galleys.     Before   such  a 
force  Tunis  soon  fell,  and  the  Christian  garrison  was 
bidden    to   choose  '  between   death  •  and    Mohammed's 
creed.     In  other  cities  the  Christians  shut  themselves 
up  in  the  forts  and  prepared  for  a  long  resistance,  and 
months   passed    before   the    Sicilian   fleet,   which   was 
engaged   in  the    Balearic  Islands,  could   come   to   the 
rescue.     But  under  the  walls  of  Mehdia  it  was  put  to 
flight  by  a  few 
brought  wo- 
were   amply  prov 

garrisons  had  dc  heir  horses,  they  onh 

slaughter  by  the  magnanimity  of  their  foes.  Majo  lost 
his  life  in  the  first  outbreak  of  a  revolution  in  which 
every  member  of  the  house  of  Tancred  took  part  ; 
King  William  was  taken  prisoner  in  the  council 
chamber,  and  the  insurgents  divided  among  them- 
selves the  wom6tof.jflif  his  harem  and  the  accumulated 

•^.40 

treasure  of  King  Roger  ;«^    infuriated  Normans,  not 


satisfied    with    Majo's    death,    s\&Q  &1\    the    Moslem 

^Aff 

eunuchs    of    the    palace    and    slaughtered  t/teu  Mos- 

"^QOju 
lems  in  the   streets  ;    but   discord  soon   broke   out   in 

their  own  ranks,  the  bishops  appealed  to  the  populace 


The  Normans  275 

to  free  the  king,  and  presently  the  people  of  Palermo 
were  in  arms  to  a  man.  Quick  to  take  advantage  of 
the  situation,  the  king  made  terms  with  the  multitude, 
promised  them  anything  and  everything,  and  with 
their  help  took  bloody  vengeance  upon  the  barons, 
the  murderer  of  Majo  was  blinded  and  hamstrung,  and 
a  sort  of  order  was  restored.  A  second  conspiracy, 
which  broke  out  ten  years  later,  ended  in  the  immediate 
death  of  all  the  conspirators,  but  the  religious  hatred 
between  Moslems  and  Christians,  which  King  Roger's 
wisdom  had  almost  entirely  allayed,  had  now  broken 
out  with  renewed  fury ;  the  massacre  of  Moslems  was 
followed  by  a  furious  reaction  under  a  king  who  was 
half  a  Moslem  himself,  the  reign  of  the  eunuchs  was 
restored,  every  Moslem  had  a  father,  a  brother,  a  wife, 
or  a  sister  to  avenge,  and  a  friend  in  the  palace  ready 
to  execute  his  private  vengeance ;  where  Moham- 
medans had  been  murdered  in  the  public  places  their 
Christian  murderers  now  perished  wholesale  on  the 
scaffold,  until  the  whole  country  was  tired  of  slaughter, 
and  sank,  with  its  sovereign,  into  an  apathy  of  weari- 
ness. Then  William  the  Bad,  giving  over  the  govern- 
ment of  his  kingdom  to  his  ministers,  amused  his 
slothful  hours  with  the  building  of  a  magnificent  palace, 
which  was  called  the  Zisa,  but  before  that  beautiful 
retreat  was  ended,  he  breathed  his  last  at  the  age  of 
forty-six  years ;  and  when  he  was  borne  to  his  grave, 
the  matrons  of  Palermo,  and  more  especially  the 


276 


The   Rulers  of  the  South 


Moslem  women,  followed  in  thousands,  with  dishevelled 
hair,  and  robed  in  sackcloth,  striking  the  funeral 
cymbal  in  time  with  their  doleful  lamentations.  After- 
wards it  was  known  by  a  few  that  the  king  had  been 
dead  several  days  before  his  death  was  announced,  the 
secret  having  been  kept  in  order  that  the  chief  men 


FOUNTAIN    IN    THE    MOORISH    PALACE    OF    LA    Z1SA,    PALERMO 

might  gather  in  council  to  assure  the  succession  and 
coronation  of  the  boy  William  the  Second,  then  barely 
fourteen  years  of  age.  This  was  in  1166. 

When  the  days  of  mourning  were  passed,  the  royal 
lad  rode  in  state  through  Palermo,  and  radiantly 
handsome  as  he  was,  says  the  chronicler  Falcandus, 


The  Normans  277 

his  beauty  was  strangely  perfected  on  that  day,  and 
there  was  such  imperial  grace  in  his  features,  that 
even  they  who  had  most  bitterly  hated  his  father, 
and  whom  no  one  had  expected  to  be  loyal  to  his 
heirs,  loved  the  youth  forthwith,  and  cried  out  that 
it  would  be  shameful  and  unmanly  to  visit  the  sins  of 
the  sire  upon  the  son.  The  queen,  also,  his  mother, 
Margaret  of  Navarre,  who  was  regent  till  he  should 
be  of  age,  bestowed  great  gifts,  and  many  pardons, 
and  all  manner  of  gracious  treatment  upon  those  who 
had  been  discontented. 

So  the  new  reign  prospered,  and  in  the  days  of 
William  the  Second  the  cause  of  law  and  justice  flour- 
ished in  the  land,  every  man  was  satisfied  with  his  lot, 
peace  and  security  prevailed  everywhere,  the  travel- 
ler feared  not  the  ambush  of  highway  robbers,  nor 
did  the  sailor  dread  the  violence  of  pirates.  William 
was  the  flower  of  kings,  the  crown  of  princes,  the 
mirror  of  the  citizens,  the  glory  of  his  nobles,  the  hope 
and  trust  of  his  friends,  and  the  terror  of  his  enemies. 
So  at  least  says  Richard  of  San  Germane,  with  much 
more  to  the  same  purpose.  Even  the  discontented 
Amari,  who  outdid  Gibbon  in  sarcasm,  rivalled  him 
in  learning,  but  was  painfully  inferior  to  him  in  judg- 
ment, admits  that  the  young  William  was  crowned  amid 
hopes  which  he  never  wilfully  disappointed.  It  is  no 
wonder  that  he  was  surnamed  the  Good,  as  compared 
with  his  father;  they  lie  side  by  side  in  stupendous 


278 


The  Rulers  of  the  South 


Monreale,  and  it  may  be  by  an  accident  that  the 
son,  who  built  that  great  cathedral,  should  have  been 

placed    in    a    fair    sar-       ._^, 

cophagus  of  white  mar- 
ble with  traceries  of  gold, 
and    the    father    in    one 
of  plain  dark  porphyry, 
almost  black. 

William  reigned  three 
and  twenty  years,  and 
so  changed  the  character 
of  the  court  of  Palermo 
and  of  the  government 
of  Sicily  that  the  Mo- 
hammedan element  sank 
into  abeyance.  Accord- 
ing to  Richard  of  San 
Germano  the  king's  chief 

counsellors,  his  'two  most  sturdy  pillars  of  support,' 
were  Walter  of  the  Mill,  the  English  Archbishop  of 
Palermo,  and  the  Chancellor  Matthew.  It  was  by  the 
advice  of  the  archbishop,  says  this  chronicler,  that 
William  the  Second  gave  his  aunt  Constance  in  mar- 
riage to  Henry  of  Hohenstaufen,  afterwards  Henry 
the  Sixth,  making  the  counts  of  the  kingdom  swear 
upon  the  sacraments  that  if  the  king  died  child- 
less they  would  obey  Constance  of  Hauteville  and 
her  husband.  Also,  this  Walter  of  the  Mill  first 


BRAWN  AFTEKAPHOTOGKXEii 


TOMB  OF  KING  ROGER  IN   THE  CATHE- 
DRAL  OF    PALERMO 


The  Normans  279 

built  for  William  the  great  cathedral  where  it  stands 
to-day. 

But  when  William  died,  and  left  no  heirs,  a  great 
dissension  arose  among  the  nobles,  and  they  forgot 
their  oaths,  many  aspiring  to  the  throne ;  and  at  last, 
lest  the  archbishop  should  prevail  and  thrust  Con- 
stance upon  them,  they  agreed  to  choose  for  their  king, 
Tancred,  not  the  great  crusader,  but  the  natural  son 
of  William  the  Bad's  elder  brother,  who  had  died  in 
early  manhood.  They  could  not  have  chosen  a  braver 
or  a  truer  man  of  his  race,  and  he  laboured  with  all 
his  might  for  the  cause  of  peace ;  by  a  liberal  ex- 
penditure of  the  royal  treasure,  which  he  was  the 
first  to  touch,  and  by  some  brave  fighting,  he  restored 
the  kingdom  of  the  south,  and  even  the  Abbot  of 
Monte  Cassino  swore  fealty  to  him.  He  was  crowned 
in  1189,  the  year  before  Barbarossa  died;  and  Joanna, 
the  widowed  queen  of  the  young  king,  was  Joanna 
of  England,  own  sister  of  King  Richard  the  Lion- 
hearted. 

It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  a  man  of  such  temper 
as  Henry  the  Sixth  would  tamely  relinquish  his  just 
claims  to  the  south,  but  his  father  was  still  alive,  and 
the  stirring  events  of  the  third  Crusade  intervened ; 
so  that  it  was  not  until  Frederick  Barbarossa  had 
perished  in  the  East  that  Henry  came  into  Italy ;  and 
meanwhile  Tancred  had  no  small  difficulty  in  prevailing 
upon  Richard  the  Lion-hearted  and  Philip  Augustus 


280  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

of  France  to  restrain  their  men  from  wrangling  in  his 
city  of  Messina  and  to  proceed  on  their  way. 

For  Richard  was  a  quarrelsome  man,  and  Roger  of 
Hoveden  has  left  a  record  of  his  journey  through  the 
south,  how  he  left  Salerno  when  he  heard  that  his  fleet 
had  reached  Messina,  and  proceeded  to  Cosenza  by  way 
of  Amalfi,  which  is  a  geographical  impossibility  that 
need  startle  no  one  accustomed  to  the  chronicles.  He 
came  down  by  Scalea,  and  saw  the  island,  where,  says 
Roger,  'there  is  a  fine  chamber  beneath  the  ground, 
in  which  Lucan  used  to  study';  and  he  slept  at  Cetraro 
and  at  other  places  till  he  came  to  Mileto,  where  'there 
is  a  tower  of  wood  close  by  the  abbey,  by  means  of 
which  Robert  Guiscard  attacked  and  took  the  castle 
and  town,'  in  his  quarrel  with  his  brother  the  Great 
Count,  a  hundred  years  before  Roger  of  Hoveden  wrote 
—  but  he  did  not  take  it,  as  has  been  seen.  And  then, 
'  the  king  of  England,  departing  from  Mileto  with 
a  single  knight,  passed  through  a  certain  small  town, 
and,  after  he  had  passed  through,  turned  towards  a 
certain  house  in  which  he  heard  a  hawk,  and  entering 
the  house  took  hold  of  it.  On  his  refusing  to  give  it 
up,  numbers  of  peasants  came  running  from  every 
quarter,  and  made  an  attack  on  him  with  sticks  and 
stones.  One  of  them  then  drew  his  knife  against  the 
king,  upon  which  the  latter,  giving  him  a  blow  with 
the  flat  of  his  sword,  it  snapped  asunder,  whereupon 
he  pelted  the  others  with  stones,  and  with  difficulty 


The  Normans  281 

making  his  escape  out  of  their  hands,  came  to  a  priory 
called  Bagnara.'  Thence  he  hastily  crossed  the  straits 
and  slept  in  a  tent  '  near  a  stone  tower  which  lies  at 
the  entrance  of  the  Faro  on  the  Sicilian  side.'  It  must 
be  admitted  that  the  royal  progress  lacked  dignity, 
but  on  the  following  day  Richard  made  up  for  it  by 
making  '  such  a  noise  of  trumpets  and  clarions,  that 
alarm  seized  those  who  were  in  the  city,'  that  is,  in 
Messina ;  and  by  way  of  making  himself  at  home  in 
a  friendly  country  he  seized  a  monastery,  ejected  the 
monks,  and  fortified  himself,  and  presently,  '  a  dis- 
agreement arose  between  the  army  of  the  king  of 
England  and  the  citizens  of  Messina,'  which  soon 
became  an  open  quarrel  between  the  two  kings  — 
'and  to  such  a  pitch  did  the  exasperation  on  both 
sides  increase,  that  the  citizens  shut  the  gates  of  the 
city,  £nd,  putting  on  their  arms,  mounted  the  walls.' 
The  end  of  it  was  that  the  kings  agreed  together, 
took  Messina  and  forced  Tancred  to  pay  over  an 
exorbitant  sum  of  money,  supposed  to  represent  the 
dowry  of  the  childless  Joanna.  Roger  of  Hoveden 
says  that  before  the  conclusion  of  this  so-called  treaty 
of  peace  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  pagans  who 
were  in  the  kingdom  of  Sicily  indignantly  refused  to 
serve  under  King  Tancred,  both  because  Henry  of 
Hohenstaufen  had  laid  claim  to  the  throne  of  Sicily, 
and  also  because  Richard  of  England  had  taken  pos- 
session of  a  great  part  thereof ;  and  that  these  Sara- 


282  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

cens  fled  to  the  hills  with  their  families  and  herds, 
attacking  and  plundering  Christians.  It  is  interesting 
to  learn  that  while  Richard  was  making  such  unjusti- 
fiable claims  he  was  profoundly  impressed  by  the 
prophecies  and  wise  sayings  of  a  certain  Abbot  of 
Curazzo,  who  interpreted  the  revelation  of  Saint  John 
the  Evangelist  in  a  modern  spirit ;  and  that,  the  '  divine 
grace  inspiring  him  thereto,  Richard,  being  sensible  of 
the  filthiness  of  his  life,  after  due  contrition  of  heart, 
having  called  together  all  the  bishops  and  archbishops 
who  were  with  him  at  Messina,  made  a  general  confes- 
sion of  his  sins  and  from  that  time  forwards  became 
a  man  who  feared  God,  and  left  what  was  evil  and 
did  what  was  good.' 

So  at  last  the  turbulent  crusaders  departed,  and 
Tancred  had  leisure  to  go  over  into  Apulia  and  insure 
the  fidelity  of  his  vassals  by  a  general  exhibition  of 
strength  and  generosity.  And  now  Henry  the  Sixth 
and  his  wife  Constance  came  to  Rome  and  were 
crowned  emperor  and  empress  in  the  Church  of 
Saint  Peter's,  and  the  Emperor  Henry,  being  pleased 
with  the  Romans,  made  them  a  present  of  Tusculum, 
then  the  stronghold  of  the  Colonna  family,  and  the 
Romans  promptly  destroyed  it,  as  he  expected. 

Henry  immediately  entered  Tancred's  kingdom  in 
spite  of  the  opposition  of  the  Pope  who  had  just 
crowned  him,  and  the  timid  monks  of  Monte  Cassino 
hastened  to  swear  fidelity  to  him,  while  many  towns, 


The  Normans  283 

being  taken  unawares,  placed  themselves  in  his  hands ; 
and   the   emperor  received   the  submission  of   Salerno 
and   left  the  empress  there,  while  he  himself  made  a 
futile  attack  upon  Naples.     But  as  usual  desertion  and 
disease  did  their  work   in   the    German   army ;  Henry 
left  Constance  in  Salerno,  and  retiring  with  the  remains 
of  his  forces  returned   to  Germany.     In  no  long  time 
after  this  the  Count  of  Acerra  received  back  for  Tan- 
cred  most  of  the  towns  the  emperor  had  taken,  and  he 
went  up  to  Monte  Cassino  and  entered  the  abbey,  no 
one  opposing  him ;  but  when  neither  prayers  nor  prom- 
ises could   prevail  upon  the  monks  to  return  to  their 
allegiance  to  Tancred,  he  departed  without  doing  them 
any  violence.     Henry  the  Sixth,  however,  had  not  given 
up  the  struggle ;  he  sent  a  strong  army  to  the  south, 
while   Tancred   brought  up  a  considerable  force  from 
Sicily,  after  crowning  his  eldest  son  Roger  as  his  suc- 
cessor in  case  of  his  own  death.     He  fought  desper- 
ately for  his  kingdom,  and  had  he  lived  he  might  have 
held  his  own.     As  it  was,  his  son  Roger  came  to  an 
untimely  end,  and  Tancred  himself,  says    Richard   of 
San  Germano,  died  of  grief.     He  left  his  crown  to  a 
child,  the  infant  William  the  Third  and  the  regency  to 
his  queen,  a  woman  of  no  great  spirit.     The  chancellor 
Matthew,  the  wise  counsellor  of  William  the  Good  and 
the  friend  of  Tancred,  was  also  dead,  and  Sicily  was 
defenceless  before  the  arms  of  Henry  the  Sixth.     Tan- 
cred's  widow  fled  from  Palermo  with  her  infant  son  to 


284  The   Rulers  of  the  South 

a  safer  place,  whence  she  treated  with  Henry  for  her 
life  and  safety.  She  surrendered  to  him  at  last,  and  he 
handed  her  over  with  her  royal  child  to  one  of  his  faith- 
ful captains,  'to  do  with  them  according  to  his  will.' 

* 

Then  Henry,  having  got  possession  of  the  capital, 
received  the  keys  of  the  treasury  from  the  eunuchs  of 
the  palace  and  was  shown  coffers  full  of  gold,  gems, 
and  precious  objects,  part  of  which  he  distributed  to 
his  followers,  while  he  sent  a  part  back  to  Germany ; 
and  to  this  day  in  the  museum  of  Vienna  may  be  seen 
the  cloak  of  King  Roger,  the  tunic  and  leggings  of 
William  the  Good,  richly  embroidered  with  gold  and 
pearls  and  Arabic  characters,  with  many  objects  of  like 
interest  and  value.  The  emperor  established  himself 
in  the  magnificent  palace  called  the  Cuba,  now  used 
as  a  barrack,  though  almost  quite  uninjured,  and  on 
Christmas  Day,  in  the  year  1194,  presiding  over  the 
council  of  Palermo,  he  summoned  before  him  Tancred's 
widow  and  the  infant  William,  a  great  many  bishops 
and  counts  of  the  kingdom,  and  indicted  them  for  high 
treason  ;  and  he  commanded  some  to  be  blinded,  some 
to  be  burnt  alive,  some  to  be  hanged,  and  some  to 
be  sent  captive  to  Germany.  So  perished  Tancred's 
house  ;  and  on  Saint  Stephen's  Day,  being  the  very  day 
after  that  general  condemnation,  Constance  of  Haute- 
ville,  the  empress,  being  no  longer  young,  brought 
forth  her  only  son,  who  was  to  be  the  Emperor  Fred- 
erick the  Second.  It  is  said  also  that  because  of  her 


The  Normans  285 

years  and  because  Sicily  had  been  so  greatly  disturbed 
concerning  the  succession,  she  feared  lest  it  should  be 
said  thereafter  that  the  child  was  not  her  own.  There- 
fore she  caused  a  tent  to  be  pitched  before  the  cathe- 
dral, and  the  curtain  was  raised  that  all  the  women 
might  come  and  see  her  at  their  will ;  and  so  the 
great  emperor  was  born  in  a  public  place. 

Accusations  of  frightful  cruelty  have  been  brought 
against  the  Emperor  Henry ;  the  chronicle  I  have 
followed  gives  the  mildest  account  of  his  vengeance, 
but  the  great  weight  of  evidence  goes  to  prove  that 
he  commanded  innumerable  and  most  atrocious  exe- 
cutions, and  that  after  men,  women,  laymen,  and 
priests  had  been  hacked  to  pieces,  drowned,  burned, 
or  boiled  in  lard,  his  unsatisfied  ferocity  required  the 
executioner  to  nail  a  kingly  crown  upon  the  living 
head  of  a  descendant  of  Tancred  of  Hauteville. 

But  Henry  did  not  long  survive  these  horrors.  Hav- 
ing gone  back  to  Germany,  he  was  recalled  to  Palermo 
in  1097  by  the  news,  perhaps  not  unfounded,  that 
Constance  meant  to  hold  Sicily  for  herself  and  defy 
him.  He  reached  Messina,  indeed,  and  thence  pro- 
ceeded to  besiege  one  of  the  great  vassals  in  Cas- 
trogiovanni;  but  there  a  deadly  disease  overtook  him, 
and  in  a  few  weeks  he  breathed  his  last,  and  was 
buried  in  the  cathedral  of  Palermo,  in  that  stately 
tomb  from  which  he  had  cast  out  the  bones  of  the 
unhappy  King  Tancred  and  his  eldest  son. 


286  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

By  the  death  of  these  princes,  a  legitimate  line 
was  again  established  on  the  throne  of  Sicily,  and  the 
daughter  of  King  Roger  took  up  the  reins  of  gov- 
ernment in  her  own  right,  despite  the  will  of  the 
Emperor  Henry,  who  had  named  Markwald  of  An- 
weiler,  the  Grand  Seneschal  of  the  Empire,  to  be 
regent.  A  few  months  after  Henry's  death  she  had 
dismissed  her  husband's  German  ministers,  and  crowned 
her  son  Frederick  king  of  Sicily,  he  being  then  less 
than  four  years  old.  The  patriotic  Pope  Innocent  the 
Third  applauded  the  action  of  a  queen,  or  empress, 
whose  energies  were  directed  to  the  expulsion  of  the 
Germans  from  Italy,  and  approved  the  coronation  of 
the  child  Frederick,  while  asserting  for  the  Holy  See 
certain  rights  over  Apulia  and  the  ecclesiastical  reve- 
nues in  Sicily ;  but  Constance,  short-lived,  like  many 
of  her  race,  died  six  months  after  the  coronation, 
leaving  the  infant  king  and  future  emperor  to  the 
guardianship  of  the  Pope  himself.  Immediately  the 
German  vassals  of  Henry  the  Sixth,  whom  Constance 
had  kept  down,  took  courage  again  and  set  up  a 
rival  to  Frederick,  in  the  husband  of  one  of  Tancred's 
daughters,  and  though  the  Pope  gave  him  little  coun- 
tenance, he  may  have  debated  upon  the  possibility  of 
bestowing  upon  him  the  Sicilian  crown.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  Pope  never  directly  interfered  in  Sicily 
during  the  minority  of  Frederick. 

Meanwhile  the  Christianizing  reign  of   William   the 


The  Normans  287 

Second  had  produced  lasting  results,  and  the  Moslem 
population  had  almost  quite  deserted  Palermo ;  thou- 
sands had  returned  to  Africa,  and  tens  of  thousands 
had  gone  out  into  the  hill  country  above  Mazzara  on 
the  southwest  coast,  and  after  the  year  1200  there 
are  no  deeds  referring  to  Moslems  in  the  capital. 
Those  in  the  provinces  were  vassals  of  the  churches 
and  monasteries,  or  of  the  great  nobles,  and  when 
Innocent  the  Third,  in  his  enthusiasm  for  the  fourth 
Crusade,  seized  all  the  ecclesiastical  revenues  of  Sicily 
for  the  year  1199,  the  monasteries  ground  the  Mos- 
lems to  raise  more  money ;  at  the  same  time  the  Pope 
issued  a  proclamation  enjoining  the  greatest  severities 
against  those  baptized  Saracens  who  had  fallen  back 
to  Islamism.  The  oppressed  people  rose,  found  a 
ready  leader  in  their  lawful  regent  by  Henry's  will, 
the  German  Markwald,  who  had  secured  the  alliance 
of  Pisa,  and  they  besieged  Palermo ;  but  their  defeat 
ruined  their  cause  and  exposed  them  to  far  greater 
sufferings.  The  Pope  gave  the  Christians  spiritual 
arms  against  the  Grand  Seneschal,  promising  the  privi- 
leges and  indulgences  of  true  crusaders  to  those  who 
fought  against  Markwald,  '  who  tempted  his  Saracens 
with  captive  Christian  women  and  draughts  of  Chris- 
tian blood ' ;  but  he  bade  them  respect  the  ancient 
privileges  of  the  Moslems.  The  regents  removed  the 
boy  Frederick  to  Messina,  where  he  was  safe,  and 
sent  a  force  of  militia  to  relieve  Palermo.  The  city 


288  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

had  suffered  a  siege  of  seventeen  days  and  was 
already  reduced  to  want  of  bread  when  the  relieving 
army  arrived,  cut  the  enemy  to  pieces,  and  drove 
Markwald  to  flight.  He  was  again  beaten  far  to 
eastward,  in  the  wild  country  about  Randazzo,  on  the 
slope  of  Etna,  and  his  career  would  have  been  ended 
had  not  the  Sicilian  regents  found  it  convenient  to  for- 
give him  and  make  common  cause  with  him  against 
the  pretender,  Walter  of  Brienne,  the  husband  of  a 
daughter  of  King  Tancred ;  and  so  the  fighting  went 
on,  with  varying  fortune,  until  both  Walter  and  Mark- 
wald perished,  and  the  kingdom  was  left  in  compara- 
tive peace  under  the  regency  of  the  Pope. 

The  latter  soon  afterwards  declared  Frederick  to 
be  of  age,  at  fourteen  years,  and  in  the  same  year 
married  him  to  Constance,  the  sister  of  Peter  the 
Second  of  Aragon  and  the  young  widow  of  a  king  of 
Hungary.  She  was  older  than  he,  of  course,  and 
she  came  of  a  race  that  lacked  neither  courage  nor 
astuteness.  Frederick,  educated  in  the  safe  seclusion 
of  a  palace,  while  others  disputed  his  kingdom,  now 
issued  from  its  gates  to  survey  the  wreck  of  the 
Norman  dominions.  The  mainland  was  lost,  appar- 
ently beyond  recovery,  partly  to  the  Pope  and  partly 
to  the  lawless  barons  of  the  south ;  in  Sicily,  the  royal 
lands  had  been  either  seized  by  the  nobles  or  given 
away  as  bribes  by  the  regents,  who  had  also  granted 
the  province  of  Syracuse  to  a  Genoese  colony  of 


The  Normans  289 

traders ;  and  of  all  King  Roger's  conquests,  Frederick 
could  only  count  with  certainty  upon  the  allegiance 
of  half  a  dozen  Sicilian  cities.  As  for  the  Empire,  it 
was  in  dispute  between  his  uncle  and  his  cousin,  and 
the  boy,  who  was  to  be  German  emperor,  king  of 
Sicily  and  Apulia,  and  king  of  Cyprus  and  Jerusalem, 
had  difficulty  in  raising  enough  money  to  support  five 
hundred  horsemen  whom  his  wife  borrowed  from  her 
cousin  of  Provence  to  defend  him.  To  make  matters 
worse,  his  cousin  of  Hohenstaufen,  the  Emperor  Otto 
the  Fourth,  occupied  Naples  and  Aversa,  by  the  help 
of  the  Pisans,  and  secretly  negotiated  with  the  discon- 
tented Moslems  of  Sicily  for  the  destruction  of  Fred- 
erick, in  1210.  The  youth  seemed  lost,  but  his  career 
was  already  at  its  upward  turning-point,  and  from 
that  time  he  rose  rapidly  to  the  height  of  earthly 
glory. 

Innocent  the  Third,  to  whom  we  may  as  well  give 
credit  for  supporting  his  ward,  prepared  the  way  for 
the  latter's  elevation  to  the  throne  of  the  Empire. 
With  incredible  energy  and  matchless  knowledge  of 
his  times,  he  excommunicated  the  rival  Otto,  and  for- 
mally proclaimed  his  deposition  in  Nuremberg,  ab- 
solved the  whole  Empire  from  its  oath  of  allegiance, 
recalled  to  the  world  the  election  of  Henry's  infant 
son,  and  immediately  forced  Germany  into  a  civil  war, 
from  which  the  only  issue  was  clearly  the  coronation 
of  the  young  Frederick,  then  eighteen  years  old. 


290  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

Frederick,  as  Amari  well  puts  it,  was  already  weary 
of  reigning  where  he  could  not  rule,  and  threw  himself 
heart  and  soul  into  this  German  revolution.  He  left 
his  queen  and  an  infant  son  in  Sicily  in  1212,  sailed 
to  Gaeta,  visited  the  Pope  in  Rome,  and  promised 
everything  that  was  asked  of  him,  sailed  on  again 
to  Genoa,  and  rode  by  Pavia,  Cremona,  and  Trent  to 
Basle,  barely  escaping  his  enemies  as  he  passed.  In 
vain  Otto  pursued  him,  in  vain  allied  himself  with 
England ;  Philip  Augustus  of  France  joined  Frederick 
and  the  Pope,  and  Otto  was  beaten  in  the  decisive 
battle  of  Bouvines. 

Frederick  remained  eight  years  in  Germany,  during 
which  he  repressed  all  opposition  and  made  himself 
the  undisputed  master  of  the  situation.  His  father 
had  come  down  from  the  north  to  claim  the  southern 
kingdom  as  his  wife's  dowry,  and  to  hold  it  as  his  own 
possession  ;  the  son  went  northwards  almost  alone  to 
claim  an  Empire  which  was  his  own  by  rightful  inher- 
itance. Henry,  with  Europe  at  his  back,  wreaked  his 
vengeance  upon  a  small  and  helpless  kingdom ;  his 
son  took  that  kingdom  with  him  to  the  heart  of  the 
Empire  he  had  claimed  and  recovered  from  the  hands 
of  usurpers.  Henry's  body  was  borne  to  its  stolen 
resting-place  in  Palermo,  pursued  by  the  curses  and 
imprecations  of  mankind ;  Frederick  the  Second  spent 
much  of  his  life,  indeed,  in  a  contest  with  the  popes, 
was  thrice  or  four  times  excommunicated,  and  lies, 


The  Normans  291 

perhaps  unshriven,  beside  his  father  in  the  cathedral ; 
but  historians  have  called  him  the  Philosopher  King, 
and  though  he  attained  to  no  saintly  honours,  his  fame 
is  at  least  unsullied  by  such  dastardly  cruelty  as  his 
father  practised,  and  by  the  vile  treachery  that  soon 
set  Charles  of  Anjou  on  the  throne  of  Sicily  and 
Naples. 

Having  been  crowned  in  Rome  in  the  year  1220,  he 
returned  to  Sicily  to  find  himself  face  to  face  with 
what  may  be  called  the  Moslem  question.  The  nobles 
were  more  or  less  divided  among  themselves,  and 
Frederick  now  had  power  to  control  them,  but  the 
Moslems,  though  united,  were  in  a  most  unhappy 
position.  Those  who  during  more  than  twenty  years 
had  lived  like  free  barons  in  the  castles  of  the  West 
were,  legally  speaking,  the  vassals  of  churches  and 
monasteries  that  clamoured  to  the  emperor  for  satis- 
faction against  them  ;  but  Frederick,  who  found  himself 
at  odds  with  the  Church  and  with  his  barons,  needed 
these  very  barons  as  allies.  The  emperor  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  satisfy  the  most  pressing  demands  of  the  church- 
men by  nominally  bestowing  upon  them  lands  and 
castles  held  by  the  Saracens ;  but  when  the  former  at- 
tempted to  take  possession,  they  more  than  once  found 
themselves  the  prisoners  of  those  they  sought  to  dis- 
possess, and  the  Mohammedans  began  to  move  about 
the  island  in  strong  bands,  committing  depredations  of 
every  description,  forming  a  permanent  revolutionary 


292  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

army  that  fluctuated  in  strength,  but  may  sometimes 
have  numbered  thirty  thousand  fighting  men.  Fred- 
erick held  a  sort  of  parliament  at  Messina  soon  after 
his  arrival,  and  visited  many  of  the  principal  cities  ; 
but  he  accomplished  little  until  his  next  visit,  when  he 
was  obliged  to  take  the  field  against  the  great  free- 
booter, Mirabbet,  whose  predatory  enterprises  had 
assumed  dangerous  proportions,  and  who  had  associated 
himself  with  two  of  the  most  infamous  ruffians  who 
ever  adorned  a  gibbet,  Hugo  Fer  of  Marseilles  and 
William  the  Swine  of  Genoa.  These  two,  though  some 
historians  lay  the  blame  entirely  upon  the  first,  had 
collected  together,  by  promises  and  persuasion,  a  vast 
number  of  young  children  who  were  to  be  transported 
to  the  Holy  Land  under  the  name  of  the  Children's 
Crusade,  to  be  cared  for  and  educated  by  the  kings  of 
Jerusalem,  and  brought  up  to  be  defenders  of  the  holy 
places.  The  organizers  of  the  enterprise  were  well 
provided  with  money  to  carry  it  out,  and  offered  the 
children's  parents  such  surety  of  their  good  faith  that 
thousands  of  fathers,  in  those  times  of  general  poverty 
and  numerous  families,  consented,  each  believing  that 
his  child  was  taken  from  him  only  to  enter  upon  an 
honourable  career  of  arms,  and  with  the  Pope's 
especial  benediction.  In  this  way  it  is  said  that  Hugo 
Fer  and  William  the  Swine  gathered  a  company  of 
fifty  thousand  boys  with  whom  they  embarked  on 
many  vessels  for  the  East.  The  rest  is  soon  told.  The 


The  Normans  293 

traitors  sailed  eastwards  indeed,  but  not  to  Palestine, 
for  they  were  in  league  with  the  Saracens,  and  they 
sold  fifty  thousand  Christian  children  into  slavery  in 
Africa.  Therefore  when  Frederick  took  those  men 
alive  with  Mirabbet  in  the  castle  of  Giato,  he  hanged 
them ;  and  perhaps  his  father  would  have  found  for 
them  worse  tortures  than  boiling  in  lard  or  tearing  to 
pieces  with  red-hot  pincers. 

Though  Frederick  now  had  the  upper  hand,  a  desul- 
tory war  continued  for  some  time,  and  in  the  meanwhile 
the  Pope,  Honorius  the  Third,  did  his  best  to  force  the 
emperor  to  lead  another  crusade,  not  without  some 
crafty  intention  of  seizing  Apulia  in  his  absence,  and 
Frederick  constantly  made  use  of  his  troubles  in 
Sicily,  real  and  imaginary,  as  an  excuse  for  putting  off 
his  departure  to  the  Holy  Land.  He  had  now  given  up 
all  idea  of  employing  the  Saracens  against  the  nobles, 
and  had  accomplished  the  more  difficult  task  of  organ- 
izing the  nobles  against  the  Saracens.  In  the  year 
1225  he  so  completely  defeated  the  latter  in  the  Sicilian 
mountains,  that  during  eighteen  years  afterwards  there 
is  no  mention  of  a  Moslem  rebellion.  It  was  on  this 
•occasion  that  he  transplanted  six  thousand  Saracens 
to  the  mainland.  These  colonists  perished  altogether 
under  Charles  of  Anjou. 

Frederick  was  driven  at  last,  by  the  menaces  and 
entreaties  of  Gregory  the  Ninth,  to  sail  from  Brindisi 
with  an  army  of  crusaders  already  decimated  by  the 


294  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

plague.  Falling  ill  himself,  he  was  obliged  to  put  back, 
and  was  excommunicated  by  the  ruthless  pontiff  before 
he  had  recovered.  Nevertheless,  in  the  following  year 
he  set  forth  again,  founding  his  claim  to  the  throne  of 
Jerusalem  upon  his  marriage  with  a  princess  of  Antioch, 
and  he  actually  succeeded  in  obtaining  possession  of  the 
holy  city  by  a  treaty  with  the  sultan  of  Egypt ;  where- 
upon the  Pope  declared  the  agreement  to  be  sacrilegious, 
sent  an  army  under  Frederick's  brother-in-law  to  take 
Jerusalem  from  him,  and,  perhaps  from  force  of  habit, 
excommunicated  the  emperor  again.  But  the  latter  re- 
turned to  Italy  with  his  new  title  of  King  of  Jerusalem, 
drove  the  papal  troops  from  his  dominions,  and  forced 
the  pontiff  to  a  peace.  His  Mohammedan  colonists 
fought  bravely  under  him  in  this  war,  but  as  many  of 
them  afterwards  attempted  to  return  secretly  to  Sicily, 
he  collected  them  together  and  established  them  in 
Apulia,  in  the  town  called  from  them  Lucera  de'  Sara- 
ceni,  and  they  long  continued  to  play  an  important  part 
in  the  wars  of  the  continent.  The  ingenious  pontiff, 
finding  it  impossible  to  get  rid  of  his  troublesome 
master  in  any  other  way,  now  exhorted  him  to  lead 
another  crusade  to  the  Holy  Land,  but  Frederick  was 
little  inclined  to  renew  his  previous  experience,  and  he 
must  have  smiled  when  he  received  the  usual  excommu- 
nication in  return  for  his  refusal.  But  Pope  Gregory 
had  gone  too  far,  and  Frederick  retorted  by  occupying 
the  states  of  the  Church,  and  even  by  threatening  Rome 


The  Normans  295 

itself.  In  desperate  straits  the  pontiff  called  a  council, 
but  death  overtook  him  suddenly,  and  after  the  two 
years'  reign  of  his  successor,  the  next  Pope,  refusing 
to  make  peace,  fled  to  France,  convened  a  council  in 
Lyons,  and  declared  the  Emperor  Frederick  deposed. 

The  remainder  of  the  latter's  life  was  consumed  in 
wars  in  the  north  of  Italy,  resulting  principally  from 
the  attempt  made  to  set  up  Henry  Raspe,  Landgrave 
of  Thuringia,  as  anti-emperor,  in  which  Frederick 
found  himself  opposed  to  his  natural  son  Heinz,  or 
Enzo,  king  of  Sardinia,  while  his  second  son,  Conrad, 
afterwards  emperor,  fought  for  the  imperial  cause  in 
Germany.  Frederick's  eldest  son,  Henry,  had  long 
ago  rebelled  against  him,  and  died  his  father's  pris- 
oner in  a  castle  of  Apulia.  Manfred,  his  natural  son, 
was  with  him  in  his  latter  days,  and  upon  him  has 
fallen  the  suspicion  of  having  poisoned  his  father. 
Conrad  defeated  Henry  Raspe,  who  died  of  grief, 
but  the  Pope,  not  relinquishing  the  bitter  quarrel, 
caused  William  of  Holland  to  be  elected  anti-emperor, 
and  he  drove  Conrad  back  into  Italy.  The  great 
defeat  of  Parma  made  Frederick's  cause  almost  des- 
perate in  the  north,  and  he  retired  to  Apulia,  never 
to  return  again,  and  leaving  the  affairs  of  the  Empire 
in  the  most  inextricable  confusion.  His  end  was  mys- 
terious. Some  say  that  he  died  of  an  illness,  repent- 
ant and  absolved  by  the  Archbishop  of  Salerno ;  others 
that  he  went  out  of  the  world  as  he  had  so  long  lived 


296 


The  Rulers  of  the  South 


in  it,  the  excommunicated  enemy  of  the  Church ;  and 
there  are  many  who  write  that  Manfred  poisoned  him, 
and  that  when  his  strong  nature  bade  fair  to  survive 


FOUNTAIN    OF  THE   NINETY-NINE   WATERSPOUTS,   AQUILA 

the  draught,  Manfred  smothered  him  in  the  night  with 
a  feather  pillow,  in  Castel  Fiorentino  of  Apulia, 
whereby  was  accomplished  a  prediction  in  which  he 


The  Normans  297 

had  believed,  that  he  should  die  '  in  the  Fiorentino ' ; 
but  he  had  thought  that  the  word  meant  the  territory 
of  Florence,  and  had  never  entered  that  city.  He 
died  six  miles  from  his  Saracen  city  of  Lucera,  where 
his  great  castle  still  stands,  and  where  Manfred  took 
refuge  from  the  Pope  only  four  years  later.  The  tur- 
bulent emperor  was  a  great  builder  of  castles,  from 
the  vast  and  melancholy  stronghold  that  crowns  Cas- 
trogiovanni  to  the  fortified  city  of  Aquila  in  the 
Abruzzi,  founded  by  him,  and  populated,  it  is  said,  by 
the  inhabitants  of  ninety-nine  townships,  in  memory 
of  which  the  great  fountain  has  ninety-nine  spouts, 
and  it  is  said  that  there  were  once  as  many  churches 
within  the  walls.  A  great  builder,  a  great  fighter,  a 
passionate,  headstrong  man,  held  accursed  by  the 
ecclesiastical  writers  of  his  times,  he  is  gravely  cen- 
sured by  Muratori  for  his  ambition,  his  unbridled  pas- 
sions, and  his  avarice,  which  was,  indeed,  but  need  of 
money  in  a  desperate  conflict ;  but  he  is  to  be  praised 
also  for  his  great  heart  and  large  intelligence,  his  love 
of  justice,  his  taste  for  letters,  and  his  learning  in 
many  languages.  In  him  the  power  of  the  empire 
founded  by  Charlemagne  culminated  and  began  to 
wane,  and  under  him  the  splendour  that  rose  upon 
Sicily  with  King  Roger  spent  its  noonday  radiance, 
and  declined  towards  its  fall.  The  south  had  lived  its 
greatest  day,  and  was  soon  to  sink  forever  to  the  level 
of  a  province  owned  by  kings  who  claimed  a  little 


298  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

Norman  blood.  It  was  no  longer  Greek,  it  was  no 
longer  Saracen,  under  Frederick  the  Second  it  had 
not  even  been  any  longer  Norman ;  he  had  been  born 
in  the  public  square  of  Palermo,  he  had  spent  his 
early  years  in  the  shadow  of  Sicilian  fortresses,  he 
had  used  the  island  as  a  fulcrum  upon  which  to  wield 
the  lever  of  empire ;  but  Sicily  had  been  to  him  but 
an  imperial  appanage,  he  had  never  in  any  sense  been 
a  Sicilian,  and  he  squandered  the  strength  that  might 
have  moved  the  world  onwards,  in  a  series  of  useless 
quarrels  with  the  Papacy,  when  he  might  have  better 
employed  his  genius,  his  gifts,  and  his  knowledge  of 
men  in  civilizing  and  consolidating  the  south.  The 
confusion  that  followed  upon  his  death,  the  disputes 
that  arose  between  his  sons,  and  especially  between 
Conrad  and  Manfred,  the  quick  decay  of  institutions 
which  should  have  lasted  for  centuries,  the  chaos,  in 
a  word,  which  was  the  natural  result  of  his  reign, 
could  only  end  as  it  did,  in  the  disappearance  of  his 
heirs,  the  extinction  of  his  house,  and  the  rise  of  a 
new  southern  monarchy. 

There  is,  perhaps,  no  greater  contrast  in  history  than 
that  between  Saint  Lewis  the  Ninth,  king  of  France, 
the  leader  of  the  sixth  and  seventh  Crusades,  and  his 
brother  Charles,  Count  of  Anjou,  the  destined  destroyer 
of  the  house  of  Hohenstaufen.  That  extraordinary 
man,  in  his  struggle  with  Frederick's  heirs,  quartered 
the  country  as  a  well-trained  dog  quarters  a  field;  It 


DOORWAY  IN  THE  CASTLE  OF   FREDERICK  II. 
AT  CASTROGIOVANNI 


The  Rulers  of  the  South 

blood.      It  was  no  longer  Greek,  it  was  no 

-aracen,   under   Frederick   the    Second    it  had 

I  been  any  longer  Norman  ;  he  had  been 

c    public    square  of    Palermo,   he    had   spent    his 

years  in   the   shadow  of    Sicilian    fortresses,   he 

had  used  the  island  as  a  fulcrum  upon  which  to  wield 

the  lever  of  empire ;   but  Sicily  had  been  to  him  but 

an  imperial  appanage,  he  had  never  in  any  sense  been 

a  Sicilian,  and  he  squandered  the  strength  that  might 

moved  the  world  onwards,  in  a  series  of  useless 

els  with  the  Papacy,  when  he  might  have  better 

d  his  ge:  nd    his  knowledge  of 

and   consolidating    the    south.      The 

the  disputes 

between 

;tions 

i  he  chaos,  in 

rd,    which    wns    the  ;-is    reign, 

could  only  end  as  it  did,  in  the  disappearance  of  his 
heirs,  the  extinction  of  his  house,  and  the  rise  of  a 
new  southern  monarchy. 

There  is,  perhaps,  no  greater  contrast  in  history  than 

that  between  Saint  Lewis  the  Ninth,  king  of  France, 

the  leader  of  the  sixth  and  seventh  Crusades,  and  his 

^er  Charles,  Count  of  Anjou,  the  destined  destroyer 

of   the  house  of    Hohenstaufen.      That   extraordinary 

in  his  struggle  with  Frederick's  heirs,  quartered 

ountr  A.^SW!i3&  3Wf*$Jff 

TA 


The  Normans  299 

was  not  until  Frederick  had  been  dead  three  years 
that  Charles  was  definitely  called  in  by  Pope  Innocent 
the  Fourth,  and,  to  the  iniquitous  exclusion  of  all  other 
claims,  was  named  king  of  Sicily,  Duke  of  Apulia, 
and  Prince  of  Capua.  His  principal  opponents  were 
Conrad  and  his  half-brother  Manfred,  then  a  youth  of 
one  and  twenty  years,  and  gifted  with  much  of  the 
wisdom  of  his  father,  as  well  as  the  astuteness  of  his 
Norman  ancestors.  The  premature  death  of  another 
brother,  a  younger  Henry,  born  of  the  Emperor  Fred- 
erick's marriage  with  Isabel  of  England,  served  the 
next  Pope  with  an  excuse  for  accusing  Conrad  of  mur- 
der. He  was  cited  to  appear  in  Rome,  but  wisely 
caused  himself  to  be  represented  by  proxies.  It  is 
needless  to  say  that  he  was  found  guilty  and  promptly 
excommunicated.  Forty  days  later,  he  also  died ;  and 
it  was  commonly  believed,  says  Muratori,  that  he  was 
poisoned  by  Manfred,  with  the  help  of  John  the  Moor, 
the  captain  of  the  Saracens,  Conrad's  favourite.  He 
left  an  infant  son  two  years  old,  who  was  destined  to 
be  known  as  the  last  of  the  Hohenstaufen.  Why 
Manfred  did  not  destroy  this  child,  if  he  really  had 
poisoned  the  father,  it  does  not  appear.  He  may  have 
thought  that  his  illegitimacy  was  an  insuperable  bar- 
rier between  him  and  the  Empire,  and  that  the  most 
he  could  hope  for  was  that  he  might  be  the  master  of 
a  future  emperor.  Conrad's  treasures  were,  mean- 
while, seized  by  the  regent  he  had  designated,  and  for 


300 


The  Rulers  of  the  South 


some  short  time  this  regent  and  Manfred  actually  ex- 
erted themselves  to  bring  about  an  understanding  with 
the  Pope.  Failing  to  do  so,  the  German  regent  re- 
signed his  office,  but  not  his  ward's  treasure,  to  Man- 


CHURCH   OF   SAN    BERNARDINO,   AQUILA 

fred,  who,  as  sole  guardian,  met  the  Pope  and  kissed 
his  foot  at  Ceprano,  on  the  confines  of  the  papal 
states ;  after  which  the  Pope  made  a  sort  of  triumphal 
progress  to  Monte  Cassino,  accompanied  by  Manfred. 
The  latter,  however,  had  refused  to  take  the  oath  of 


The  Normans  301 

fealty  to  the  Church,  and  the  negotiations  which 
doubtless  proceeded  during  the  journey  were  rudely 
interrupted.  Manfred  quarrelled  with  one  of  the 
Pope's  favourite  barons,  who  was  accidentally  or  inten- 
tionally killed  by  one  of  Manfred's  men ;  and  Man- 
fred himself  was  soon  obliged  to  take  refuge  in  Lucera. 
He  reached  the  gates  on  a  dark  night  early  in  Novem- 
ber, at  a  moment  when  John  the  Moor,  who  was  gov- 
ernor, was  absent  on  a  journey.  The  Saracen  sentinels 
upon  the  walls,  on  being  told  that  Manfred  was  below, 
were  filled  with  joy,  and,  fearing  that  the  vice-governor 
might  refuse  to  give  them  the  keys,  which  were  kept 
in  his  house,  came  down  and  broke  the  gates  open 
from  within  to  receive  Frederick's  son.  In  a  moment 
the  news  spread  through  the  Saracen  town, -the  whole 
population  came  out  into  the  streets,  and,  though  it 
was  night,  insisted  upon  leading  Manfred  to  the  palace, 
where  a  great  treasure,  accumulated  by  Frederick  and 
Conrad  and  John  the  Moor,  was  unconditionally  handed 
over  to  him. 

The  death  of  Innocent  the  Fourth  and  the  possession 
of  so  much  wealth  materially  improved  Manfred's  posi- 
tion, and  for  some  time  he  overran  the  south,  losing  no 
time  in  regaining  what  he  could  for  his  ward  Conradin, 
and  followed  everywhere  by  his  faithful  Saracens.  Be- 
fore long  he  inflicted  a  crushing  defeat  upon  the  papal 
army  on  the  shores  of  the  Adriatic,  after  which  the 
Pope's  cardinal  legate  and  general  obtained  terms  with 


302  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

which  the  Pope  should  have  been  satisfied,  but  the  Pope 
refused  to  acknowledge  the  treaty,  and  proclaimed  Man- 
fred an  excommunicated  member  of  the  Church,  to  be 
treated  like  a  Turk  or  an  infidel ;  yet,  strange  to  say, 
the  Pope  admitted  the  infant  Conradin's  claim  to  the 
nugatory  kingdom  of  Jerusalem.  From  this  time  Man- 
fred's position  continued  to  improve.  He  was  a  mild 
and  generous  prince  to  those  who  submitted  to  him,  and 
from  Aversa  to  Sicily  the  people  volunteered  to  fight 
under  his  standard.  We  hear  nothing  of  any  attempt  on 
the  part  of  Charles  of  Anjou  to  take  possession  of  the 
kingdom  presented  to  him  by  Innocent  the  Fourth,  and 
Muratori  speaks  of  Manfred  as  the  master  of  the  king- 
dom on  both  sides  of  the  straits  in  the  year  1257.  With 
the  treachery  that  lay  under  his  brilliant  gifts  he  now 
attempted  to  crown  himself  king,  spreading  the  report 
that  his  nephew  Conradin  had  died  in  Germany,  and 
some  chroniclers  say  that  he  sent  emissaries  to  murder 
the  child.  His  youth,  his  courteous  manner,  and  his 
clemency  recommended  him  alike  to  the  people  and  the 
nobles,  and  when  Conradin's  mother  sent  ambassadors 
to  him  in  1258,  protesting  that  Conradin  was  alive  and 
was  the  rightful  king,  Manfred  answered  with  a  show 
of  reason  that  the  kingdom  had  been  lost,  and  that,  as 
all  men  knew,  he  had  reconquered  it  by  force  of  arms 
and  at  great  pains,  and  that  it  was  neither  his  duty  nor 
for  the  advantage  of  the  kingdom  to  give  it  up  to  a 
child  who  could  not  hold  it  against  the  popes,  but  that 


The  Normans  303 

he  would  defend  the  kingdom  against  those  implacable 
enemies  of  his  house  during  his  natural  life,  after  which 
it  should  revert  to  his  nephew.  By  way  of  impressing 
the  ambassadors  with  his  power,  he  marched  in  state 
from  Apulia  against  the  city  of  Aquila,  which  had  been 
built  by  his  father  but  had  taken  the  Pope's  side,  and 
having  driven  out  the  inhabitants  without  bloodshed,  he 
burned  the  town.  His  power  was  too  great  to  be  hum- 
bled by  the  Church  alone,  and  though  Alexander  the 
Fourth  did  not  fail  to  excommunicate  him,  the  same 
Pope  offered  to  concede  him  the  formal  investiture  of 
the  kingdom  in  1260,  on  condition  that  he  would  exile 
all  Mohammedans  from  his  dominions.  The  Pope  prob- 
ably knew  that  this  was  impossible,  since  the  strength 
of  Manfred's  army  now  lay  chiefly  in  the  Saracen  con- 
tingent, in  whom  he  could  place  far  more  reliance  than 
in  his  barons  of  the  south.  Manfred  rejected  the  prop- 
osition, and  raised  more  Saracen  troops  in  Sicily,  but 
made  the  mistake  of  accepting  the  leadership  of  the 
Ghibellines  in  the  north,  and  he  sent  help  to  the  party, 
in  return  for  good  sums  of  gold,  so  that  Florence  was 
wrested  from  the  Guelphs,  and  the  famous  Guido  No- 
vello  became  Manfred's  'vicar'  or  viceregent  in  Tus- 
cany. The  Guelphs  now  made  an  unsuccessful  attempt 
to  bring  Conradin  down  from  Germany,  in  order  to 
oppose  him  to  his  uncle  ;  but  Conradin's  mother  refused 
to  consent,  and  Urban  the  Fourth  threatened  to  excom- 
municate all  who  proposed  to  make  Conradin  emperor. 


304 


The  Rulers  of  the  South 


The  popes  hated  not  Manfred  only,  but  all  his  race, 
and  Urban  bethought  him  of  Charles  of  Anjou  as  the 
only  man  likely  to  be  a  match  for  the  house  of  Hohen- 


FOUNTAIN    IN   THE   PIAZZA    PALAZZO,    AQUILA 

staufen.  It  was  with  difficulty  that  Urban  persuaded  the 
generally  docile  Saint  Lewis  to  countenance  his  brother 
Charles  in  the  enterprise,  but  his  arguments  prevailed 
at  last,  and  he  cited  Manfred  to  appear  in  Rome  and 


The  Normans  305 

answer  for  his  sins  against  the  Church.  Manfred  ap- 
peared by  proxy,  not  trusting  his  life  to  Urban's  mercy. 
His  case  was  argued  from  one  side  only,  with  a  view 
to  deposing  him  without  delay  and  with  little  hearing, 
and  Charles  of  Anjou  was  fully  authorized  to  begin 
the  conquest  of  the  south.  This  was  in  the  year  1263. 
By  way  of  impressing  their  intentions  upon  Apulia 
and  Sicily,  the  popes  had  placed  the  populations  of 
the  south  under  an  interdict  in  a  body,  and  one  of  the 
gravest  crimes  imputed  to  Frederick  the  Second  and 
to  Manfred  was  that  they  had  prevented  the  interdict 
from  being  put  into  execution ;  yet  so  many  persons 
were  now  excommunicated  throughout  Italy  that  the 
terrible  spiritual  punishment  had  lost  much  of  its  force, 
and  even  the  relentless  Urban  began  to  moderate  his 
fulminatory  zeal.  At  this  time  it  occurred  to  the  always 
discontented  Roman  people  to  choose  themselves  a  chief, 
called  a  senator,  who  should  be  also  a  powerful  prince, 
and  the  choice  of  some  fell  upon  Manfred,  but  others 
were  for  Charles  of  Anjou,  and  others  still  for  James 
of  Aragon.  Though  opposed  to  the  idea,  the  Pope 
was  forced  to  yield,  and  chose  the  Count  of  Anjou  in 
order  to  exclude  the  other  two.  Charles  at  once  sent  a 
representative  to  Rome  to  take  possession  of  the  sena- 
torial dignity.  Destiny  was  slowly  but  surely  prepar- 
ing the  downfall  of  Hohenstaufen.  On  the  news  of 
Charles's  election  as  senator,  Manfred  at  once  assumed 
the  offensive,  and  the  armies  of  the  Pope  that  were  sent 

VOL.   II  X 


306  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

against  him  bore  the  outward  badge  and  received  the 
spiritual  indulgences  of  real  crusaders.  There  was 
some  desultory  fighting,  but  Charles  did  not  yet  appear 
in  Italy,  being  engaged  in  raising  an  army  fit  for  such 
an  expedition ;  and  the  death  of  Urban  the  Fourth, 
closely  followed  by  that  of  Clement  the  Fourth,  pro- 
duced a  sort  of  lull  in  the  hostilities.  In  spite  of  Man- 
fred's attempt  to  intercept  him,  Charles  arrived  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Tiber  in  a  storm,  during  which  he  barely 
escaped  drowning.  Soon  afterwards  he  made  his 
solemn  entry  into  Rome  and  took  possession  of  his  new 
office ;  but  though  Manfred  advanced  far  into  Roman 
territory,  Charles  would  not  go  out  to  meet  him  until  he 
found  himself  at  the  head  of  a  sufficient  army.  When 
all  was  ready  Charles  and  his  wife  were  crowned  king 
and  queen  of  Sicily  and  Apulia  by  five  cardinals,  in 
the  Church  of  Saint  Peter's,  and  Charles  did  homage 
to  the  Pope  for  the  kingdom  of  Sicily  on  both  sides  of 
the  straits.  Lack  of  money  now  obliged  the  new  king 
to  take  the  field  before  his  forces  were  rested  from  their 
long  journey ;  but  they  took  San  Germane  by  storm,  and 
fatigue  was  forgotten  in  the  sacking  of  the  rich  town. 
One  place  after  another  fell  into  Charles's  hands,  and 
Manfred  retired  upon  Benevento,  whence  he  sent  am- 
bassadors to  treat  with  the  Angevin.  Charles's  answer 
has  been  preserved :  '  Tell  the  Sultan  of  Lucera,'  he 
said,  '  that  I  will  have  neither  peace  nor  amnesty  with 
him,  but  that  before  long  either  I  will  send  him  to  hell, 


The  Normans  307 

or  he  shall  send  me  to  heaven.'  Thereupon  Charles 
marched  against  Manfred,  hoping  to  terminate  the  war 
at  a  single  stroke,  and  he  reached  the  battlefield  before 
Manfred  had  determined  upon  a  plan.  The  position 
of  the  famous  city  has  already  been  described  in  these 
pages;  the  remains  of  the  bridge  about  which  the 
battle  was  fought  may  be  seen  in  the  dark  recesses  of 
a  mill  built  beneath  the  modern  construction  by  which 
the  river  is  crossed.  The  land  by  which  Charles  made 
his  approach  narrows  to  a  point  between  the  converg- 
ing streams,  so  that  as  he  came  forward  his  ranks 
gained  solidity  by  the  conformation  of  the  ground. 
Manfred  must  have  recognized  at  a  glance  that  his 
fortunes  and  those  of  all  his  house  were  to  be  decided 
on  that  day  ;  but  from  the  first  he  was  unable  to  get  any 
advantage  over  the  French.  Not  trusting  his  Apulian 
barons,  he  sent  forward  his  Saracens  and  Germans ; 
but  they  were  not  the  Normans  with  whom  his  great 
grandfather  had  won  kingdom  and  glory.  They  fought 
well,  but  the  French  fought  better.  Seeing  that  the 
ranks  wavered,  Manfred  called  upon  the  barons  to  fol- 
low him  in  one  desperate  charge.  They  saw  he  was 
lost,  they  laughed,  and  they  leisurely  rode  away.  Then 
King  Manfred,  seeing  that  he  must  die,  died  like  a  king, 
and  like  one  of  Tancred's  house,  for  he  rode  alone  at 
the  French  host  where  swords  were  thickest,  and  he 
was  pierced  with  many  wounds,  and  was  lost  among 
the  slain. 


3oS  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

The  Pope's  champion  sacked  the  old  papal  city  of 
Benevento,  and  women  and  children  were  mown  down 
with  the  men  in  the  harvest  of  the  sword.  The  town 
ran  blood  and  wine,  and  Charles's  threadbare  French- 
men filled  their  wallets  and  saddle-bags  with  gold,  and 
got  fine  silk  and  cloth  of  gold  to  their  backs.  Three 
days  they  sought  Manfred's  body  among  the  festering 


CASTLE  OF   FREDERICK   II   AT   MONTELEONE,   CALABRIA 

slain ;  and  on  the  third  day  a  peasant  found  it,  and 
tied  it  upon  an  ass,  and  hawked  it  through  the  French 
camp,  offering  to  sell  it  for  money ;  but  when  it  had 
been  recognized  by  some  of  the  nobles  whom  Charles 
had  taken  prisoners,  he  commanded  that  it  should  be 
buried  in  the  ditch  beside  the  bridge.  Even  there  the 
brave  man's  bones  were  not  allowed  to  rest  in  peace, 


The  Normans  309 

for,  though  the  ground  was  not  consecrated,  it  was  the 
property  of  the  Church,  and  the  Bishop  of  Cosenza 
therefore  caused  the  body  to  be  dug  up  again  and 
dragged  away  beyond  the  river  Verde. 

Thus  died  Manfred ;  and  when  he  was  dead  the  Sar- 
acens of  Lucera  went  over  to  Charles,  and  Naples  sent 
her  keys,  and  in  the  castle  of  Capua  Charles  found  a 
great  treasure,  all  in  pieces  of  gold.  But  when  he  com- 
manded that  scales  should  be  brought  with  which  to 
divide  the  wealth  exactly,  a  certain  knight  of  Provence 
pushed  the  great  heap  of  gold  pieces  into  three  equal 
divisions  upon  the  marble  floor  with  his  foot  and 
spurred  heel.  '  One  for  my  lord  the  king,'  he  said, 
'  and  this  for  the  queen,  and  this  other  for  your 
knights.'  And  so  it  was  done.  Charles  entered 
Naples  in  triumph,  and  it  is  recorded  that  he  first 
brought  thither  the  love  of  show  and  luxury  that  have 
distinguished  it  ever  since,  and  that  the  common  people 
cried  out  in  an  ecstasy  of  sheer  delight  at  the  proces- 
sion of  splendid  gilded  cars,  and  at  the  richly  clad 
maids  of  honour,  and  at  the  great  show  of  triumph 
that  meant  death  to  Conradin. 

Now  Charles  of  Anjou,  having  disposed  of  his  enemy 
in  one  great  victory,  found  himself  in  peaceful  posses- 
sion of  the  south,  and  at  once  he  took  the  Guelph  side, 
and  led  armies  to  Tuscany,  and  joined  in  the  unending 
quarrel ;  wherefore  the  Ghibellines  sent  urgent  letters 
to  young  Conradin,  now  nearly  sixteen  years  of  age, 


3io  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

bidding  him  to  come  and  conquer  Sicily,  and  take  pos- 
session of  his  own.  He  set  out  with  a  few  thousand 
men  and  reached  Verona,  calling  himself  King  of  Sicily, 
and  the  Pope  lost  no  time  in  excommunicating  him  for 
this  arrogance.  Most  of  his  troops  deserted  him  at  once, 
on  account  of  his  poverty,  but  his  friends  raised  his 
standard  in  Sicily,  and  the  island  rang  with  his  praises ; 
for  the  French  yoke  was  heavy.  But  though  the  patri- 
otic party  gained  an  advantage  here  and  there,  the  end 
was  not  far  off.  In  the  beginning  of  1268  Conradin 
ventured  to  leave  Verona,  and  riding  southwards  he 
found  more  than  one  of  the  restless  Tuscan  cities  ready 
to  throw  off  Charles's  authority.  Charles  prepared  to 
meet  him,  but  was  himself  at  odds  with  the  Saracens  of 
Lucera,  who  had  discovered  the  character  of  the  mas- 
ter to  whom  they  had  readily  submitted,  and  who  was 
obliged  to  besiege  them  in  their  city.  Meanwhile  Con- 
radin reached  Rome,  and  was  received  with  splendour 
by  his  friends,  in  spite  of  the  papal  excommunication. 
The  Pisans  sent  him  twenty-four  galleys,  with  which, 
sailing  southwards,  he  beat  back  the  vessels  sent 
against  him  by  the  Angevin ;  and  Ghibellines  flocked 
to  his  standard  from  all  parts  of  Italy.  Conradin  now 
marched  up  by  land  with  a  vast  host,  and  there  were 
few  who  did  not  predict  his  complete  success.  On  the 
twenty-third  of  August,  1268,  the  decisive  battle  was 
fought  in  the  plain  of  Tagliacozzo,  not  many  miles  from 
Lake  Fucino.  Charles,  fearing  the  superior  numbers 


The  Normans  311 

arrayed  against  him,  fought  with  all  the  coolness  and 
skill  he  could  command,  and  while  his  main  force 
attacked  the  enemy,  he  withdrew  to  a  little  eminence, 
where  he  watched  the  battle  with  the  chosen  reserve  of 
five  hundred  knights.  A  wise  old  captain  more  than 
once  prevented  him  from  rushing  in  at  the  wrong  mo- 
ment, and  Charles  sat  quietly  on  his  horse,  though  he 
saw  how  the  ranks  of  his  army  were  broken  by  the  Ghi- 
bellines'  furious  charge ;  but  when  Conradin's  army  was 
broken  up  into  small  bodies  that  pursued  the  French 
hither  and  thither,  certain  of  victory,  and  when,  indeed, 
that  victory  seemed  almost  sure,  then  the  crafty  old 
Alardo  touched  Charles  upon  the  arm,  and  said  that  the 
time  was  come,  and  that  he  should  win  the  field.  Then 
he  led  his  five  hundred  knights  at  furious  speed,  for 
their  horses  were  fresh,  and  fell  upon  the  disordered 
troops  of  his  enemy,  hewing  them  in  pieces,  and  turn- 
ing the  day  in  a  moment.  Conradin  and  the  young 
Duke  of  Austria  and  two  other  friends  escaped  when 
they  saw  that  all  was  lost,  and  riding  desperately 
reached  Astura,  on  the  Maremma  shore ;  and  there 
they  hired  a  little  boat,  hoping  to  escape  into  Tuscany ; 
but  Frangipane,  the  lord  of  that  castle,  guessed  who 
they  were,  and  seized  them,  and  basely  sold  them  to  the 
Angevin  king. 

The  end  of  the  house  of  Hohenstaufen  was  at  hand. 
Of  the  Emperor  Frederick's  descendants,  six  were  alive 
at  the  time  of  the  battle  of  Benevento,  whose  claims 


312  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

might  be  dangerous  to  his  throne,  namely,  Conradin  and 
Manfred's  five  children.  Of  the  latter,  Constance,  the 
eldest,  was  out  of  danger,  being  married  to  Peter  of  Ara- 
gon ;  of  the  girl  Beatrice  we  know  nothing  ;  the  three 
sons,  Henry,  Frederick,  and  Anselm  were  Charles's 
prisoners  after  the  decisive  battle,  and  they  died  in 
a  miserable  captivity  in  Apulia.  Ten  of  Frederick's 
children  and  grandchildren  died  in  prison,  or  by  a 
violent  death.  One  of  his  granddaughters,  a  daughter 
of  Enzo  of  Sardinia,  married  that  famous  Ugolino  della 
Gherardesca  who  was  starved  to  death  with  his  sons 
and  grandsons  in  Pisa.  The  shade  of  King  Tancred 
was  perhaps  appeased  by  such  an  atonement  for  Henry 
the  Sixth's  bloody  deeds. 

The  last  act  of  the  great  tragedy  was  played  in 
Naples,  on  the  twenty-sixth  or  the  twenty-ninth  of 
October,  for  the  authorities  do  not  agree,  in  the  year 
1268.  Determined  to  destroy  every  possible  claimant, 
Charles  of  Anjou  ordered  Conradin  and  his  fellow-cap- 
tives to  be  tried  by  Robert  of  Bari,  Grand  Protonotary 
of  the  kingdom,  and  the  infamous  judge  of  an  infamous 
king  condemned  the  imperial  boy  and  his  noble  com- 
panions to  death,  as  '  traitors  to  the  sovereign,  con- 
temners  of  the  Pope's  commands,  and  disturbers  of  the 
public  peace  in  Italy.'  Conradin's  claim  to  the  suc- 
cession was  just,  and  he  and  his  friends  were  prisoners 
of  war ;  to  put  them  to  death  was  a  solemn  and 
atrocious  murder. 


The  Normans  313 

On  the  appointed  day  the  sentence  was  executed. 
Charles  of  Anjou,  determined  to  see  the  end  of  his 
helpless  enemy  with  his  own  eyes,  came  in  state  to  the 
market-place,  where  the  Church  of  Santa  Maria  del 
Carmine  now  stands,  and  his  throne  was  placed  upon  a 
platform  overlooking  the  scene,  and  on  the  stones  a 
great  piece  of  scarlet  velvet  was  spread  out,  whereon 
the  men  were  to  die.  There  stood  young  Conradin,  a 
fair-haired  boy  of  sixteen  years,  fearless  as  all  his  race, 
and  the  young  Duke  of  Austria  and  six  others,  and  the 
executioner  beside  them. 

Then  Robert  of  Bari,  Grand  Protonotary,  stood  up 
by  order  of  the  king  and  read  the  sentence  in  a  loud 
voice ;  but  when  he  had  finished,  Robert  of  Flanders, 
the  king's  own  son-in-law,  gravely  drew  his  sword,  and 
he  came  and  stood  before  the  Grand  Protonotary  and 
said,  '  It  is  not  lawful  that  you  should  condemn  to 
death  so  great  a  gentleman.'  And  when  he  had  said 
this  he  pierced  the  protonotary  through  and  through, 
so  that  the  sword  ran  out  behind  him,  and  he  fell  dead, 
with  the  written  sentence  in  his  hand.  Then  a  great 
silence  fell  upon  all  the  multitude,  and  upon  the  king, 
and  Robert  of  Flanders  sheathed  his  sword  and  went 
back  to  his  place ;  for  neither  then  nor  afterwards  did 
any  one  dare  to  lift  a  hand  against  him  for  what  he 
had  done. 

So  while  the  judge  lay  dead  before  the  throne,  the 
execution  began ;  and  the  young  Duke  of  Austria  bent 


314  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

his  neck  to  the  stroke,  and  when  his  head  fell  Conradin 
took  it  in  his  hands  and  kissed  it,  for  they  had  been  as 
brothers,  and  he  laid  it  reverently  beside  the  body. 
Then  he  drew  off  his  glove  and  threw  it  among  the 
people,  and  cried  out  that  he  left  his  kingdom  to 
Frederick  of  Aragon,  the  son  of  Constance,  and  his 
cousin ;  and  when  he  had  asked  pardon  of  God  for  his 
sins  he  knelt  down  without  fear,  and  his  head  was 
struck  off,  and  after  him  died  all  his  companions. 
Their  bodies  lay  long  upon  the  scarlet  velvet,  and 
Charles  commanded  that  a  common  ditch  should  be 
dug  there,  in  the  market-place,  to  bury  them ;  and 
afterwards  a  porphyry  column  was  set  up  to  mark  the 
spot ;  and  now  they  lie  in  the  Church  of  the  Carmine. 

.  But  some  who  saw  that  deed  took  the  boy  king's 
glove,  and  by  and  by  they  brought  it  to  Peter,  king  of 
Aragon,  young  Frederick's  father,  and  he  swore  to 
avenge  the  blood  of  Conradin  ;  and  though  the  atone- 
ment was  begun  by  other  hands,  he  kept  his  word,  and 
Charles  of  Anjou  cursed  the  day  whereon  he  had  gone 
out  to  see  an  innocent  boy  die  by  the  executioner's 
hand. 

But  he  had  not  yet  fulfilled  the  measure  of  his 
cruelties.  At  the  news  of  Conradin's  death,  Sicily 
rebelled  against  him,  and  he  put  down  the  rebellion 
with  such  wholesale  massacres  of  the  people  and 
such  cruel  executions  of  their  leaders  as  even  Sicily 
had  seldom  seen  ;  and  he  left  a  French  army  there 


The  Normans  315 

with  orders  to  keep  the  people  down  by  terror;  and 
neither  the  protestations  of  Pope  Clement  the  Fourth 
nor  the  entreaties  of  his  brother,  Saint  Lewis  of  France, 
could  prevail  upon  him  to  stay  his  w'rath,  for  he  was 
afraid.  He  also  destroyed  Lucera,  and  drove  out  the 
Saracens  who  survived  the  siege. 

Two  years  after  Conradin's  death,  Saint  Lewis  set 
out  upon  the  seventh  and  last  Crusade,  and  took  Tunis 
by  storm,  and  waited  there  for  Charles  of  Anjou  to 
join  him.  But  Charles  would  not  set  out,  and  the 
good  French  king  perished  of  the  plague,  with  many 
of  his  army ;  and  when  the  remains  of  the  crusaders' 
fleet  were  driven  upon  the  rocks  and  wrecked  near 
Trapani,  Charles  robbed  the  survivors  of  all  they  could 
save,  alleging  that  a  law  of  King  William  authorized 
the  kings  of  Sicily  to  seize  all  wrecks  with  their  car- 
goes. For  a  time  the  body  of  Saint  Lewis  lay  in 
Palermo,  but  afterwards  it  was  taken  to  France  by  his 
son,  King  Philip,  and  only  his  heart  is  buried  in  the 
cathedral. 

During  fourteen  years  Charles  of  Anjou  ruled  his 
kingdoms  of  Sicily  and  Apulia  with  every  species  of 
violence  and  exaction  ;  tax  followed  upon  tax,  impost 
upon  impost,  and  tithes  both  ordinary  and  extraordinary, 
the  slightest  delay  in  payment  being  followed  by  ruth- 
less confiscation.  The  cities  were  held  by  French  gar- 
risons under  general  instructions  to  inspire  fear,  to 
extort  money,  and  to  impose  instant  obedience  to  the 


316  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

king's  decrees.  The  wives  of  respectable  citizens  were 
nowhere  safe  from  Charles's  licentious  officers,  and  the 
women  and  maidens  of  the  people  were  at  the  mercy 
of  a  ribald  soldiery.  More  than  once  the  Sicilians 
appealed  to  the  popes  against  Charles,  and  more  than 
one  pontiff  exhorted  him  to  a  milder  conduct ;  but  the 
Angevin  was  in  a  fever  of  conquest,  he  dreamed  of 
ruling  all  Italy,  he  planned  the  conquest  of  the  East, 
and  he  brought  about  the  election  of  Pope  Martin  the 
Fourth,  who  was  his  humble  servant  and  creature. 

There  lived  at  that  time  a  certain  noble  of  Salerno, 
brought  up  in  the  school  of  medicine  for  which  that 
city  remained  famous  for  ages,  a  man  of  letters,  of 
singular  wisdom,  and  a  very  skilled  physician.  This 
man  was  John  of  Procida  ;  he  had  been  closely  attached 
to  the  person  of  the  Emperor  Frederick  the  Second, 
and  I  find  his  name  among  the  witnesses  to  that  em- 
peror's will.  After  the  death  of  Frederick,  he  had  been 
faithful  to  Manfred,  and  after  the  fall  of  the  house  of 
Hohenstaufen  Charles  of  Anjou  confiscated  all  his 
goods.  He  might  have  lost  his  life  also,  had  he  not 
retired  in  good  season  to  the  court  of  Aragon  in  Barce- 
lona, where  he  was  well  received  by  King  Peter  and  by 
Queen  Constance,  Manfred's  daughter.  He  found  the 
king  well  enough  inclined  to  avenge  Conradin  and  to 
undertake  the  conquest  of  Sicily,  but  the  enterprise  was 
a  great  one,  and  he  was  not  provided  with  means  to 
enter  upon  it.  John  of  Procida  promised  to  find  money. 


The  Normans  317 

Though  he  must  have  been  at  that  time  more  than 
sixty  years  of  age,  he  travelled  through  all  Sicily  in 
disguise,  seeking  out  and  ascertaining  as  nearly  as 
possible  what  pecuniary  help  was  to  be  obtained  for 
the  impoverished  island.  It  needed  no  long  time  to 
assure  him  that  Sicily  was  ripe  for  a  revolution,  but 
John  was  too  wise  to  underestimate  Charles's  power; 
from  Sicily  he  went  on  to  Constantinople,  and  without 
difficulty  persuaded  the  Emperor  Paleologus  that,  in 
order  to  defend  himself  against  the  attack  which 
Charles  was  planning,  the  best  plan  was  to  bring  on  a 
civil  war  in  the  Angevin's  own  dominions.  The  Em- 
peror of  the  East  promised  large  sums  of  money  to 
Peter  of  Aragon  for  this  purpose,  and  with  unwearying 
energy  John  made  his  way  at  once  from  Constanti- 
nople to  Rome ;  he  was  received  in  a  secret  audience 
by  Pope  Nicholas  the  Third,  who  was  an  Orsini,  who 
was  believed  to  be  hostile  to  Charles,  and  who  promised 
great  things,  but  unfortunately  died  before  the  great 
scheme  was  ripe  for  execution. 

Peter  of  Aragon  now  prepared  a  fleet  and  an  army  on 
pretence  of  invading  the  Saracens  in  Africa.  At  the 
instigation  of  Charles,  the  Pope,  on  receiving  news  of 
this  armament,  sent  an  embassy  to  King  Peter,  inquiring 
what  his  intentions  might  be ;  but  the  crafty  monarch 
answered  that  if  one  of  his  hands  should  reveal  his 
secrets  to  the  other,  he  would  cut  it  off.  On  receiving 
this  reply  Charles  contented  himself  with  reminding  the 


318  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

Pope  that  he  had  always  looked  upon  Peter  of  Aragon 
as  a  miscreant,  and  in  Muratori's  graphic  language  he 
fell  asleep,  forgetful  of  that  old  proverb  which  says, 
'  If  some  one  tell  thee  that  thou  hast  lost  thy  nose,  feel 
for  it  with  thine  hand.' 

We  do  not  know  whether  the  final  outbreak  of  the 
revolution,  which  had  been  so  long  and  skilfully  prepared, 
took  place  precisely  as  John  of  Procida  had  intended ; 
but  when  it  came  it  was  sudden  and  terrible,  as  few 
revolutions  have  been,  and  the  Sicilian  Vespers  will  be 
remembered  so  long  as  men  love  liberty,  and  history 
records  their  deeds. 

From  the  ancient  church  and  cloister  of  San  Giovanni 
degli  Eremiti,  not  far  beyond  the  royal  palace,  a  long 
and  dusty  road  leads  out  to  what  is  now  the  chief  ceme- 
tery of  Palermo.  It  passes  through  a  sort  of  half  east- 
ern, half  modern  suburb,  where  the  poorer  people  live 
out  of  doors  all  day,  plying  their  trades  and  doing  their 
household  work  before  their  miserable,  but  not  uncleanly, 
little  houses.  In  older  times  there  was  no  suburb  there, 
and  the  broad  road  led  between  trees  through  the  open 
country  to  a  vast  meadow  broken  here  and  there  by 
clumps  of  trees,  and  surrounding  the  very  ancient  Church 
of  the  Holy  Ghost.  In  spring,  when  the  cool  breezes 
blow  up  from  the  sea,  when  the  trees  are  already  in  full 
leaf,  and  when  the  grass  is  aflame  with  scarlet  and 
yellow  and  purple  wild  flowers,  the  good  people  of  Pa- 
lermo used  to  go  out  there  on  great  festivals  with  their 


CLOISTER  OF  SAN   GIOVANNI    DEGLI    EK 


The  Rr 

it  old   proverb    v. 

'  If  t;at  thou.hast  lost  thv 

-ie  hand.' 
•  now  whether  t'r  outbreak  of  the 

;  and  skilfully  prepare 
isely  as  John  of  Procida  had  intended  ; 
ts  sudden   and  t 
•<nd  the  Sicilian  \  vill  be 

nu-n   love   liberty,  and 

" 
- 
ern,  half  in.  the  por 

iy, 
. 
the  broad  road  led  between  trees  through  the  OT 

low  broken  here  and  there  by 
clumps  of  trees,  .  <  unding  the  very  ancient  Chu> 

i  ,.  In  spring,  when  the  cool  breezes 

hen  the  trees,  idy  in  full 

and   when   the   grass   is   aflame  with    scarlet   and 
purple  wild  flowers,  the  . 


•  out.  there  on  -.<reat'  festivals  .with-thaiF,  _ 

uoaa  WVIAVO.O  ^  • 


COLUMN   IN  THE  CLOISTER  OF  SAN  GIOVANNI  DEGLI  EREMITI,  PALERMO 


320  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

wives  and  children  in  holiday  clothes,  and  taking  some 
provision  with  them,  wherewith  to  make  little  feasts  on 
the  grass.  •  So  it  came  to  pass  that  on  Easter  Monday, 
in  the  year  1282,  the  people  went  out  thus  in  long  pro- 
cession, in  the  afternoon  ;  and  they  sat  down  in  groups, 
and  ate  and  drank  together,  and  wandered  about  in 
little  companies,  exchanging  greetings  with  their  friends. 
But  as  they  feasted,  enjoying  the  peace  and  the  cool 
air,  and  forgetting  for  a  space  the  tyranny  under 
which  they  lived,  there  came  out  a  number  of  French 
soldiers  of  the  garrison  with  their  officers  ;  and  first  they 
mixed  with  the  people,  though  they  were  not  welcome, 
and  drank  from  cups  of  wine  that  no  man  had  offered 
them,  and  jested  grossly  with  the  women  and  girls,  who 
turned  from  them  in  angry  silence.  The  Sicilian  men 
grew  silent  too,  and  their  eyes  gleamed,  but  they  answered 
nothing,  and  led  their  women  away.  Then  suddenly 
the  French  captain,  a  certain  Drouet,  having  drunk 
much  wine,  ordered  his  men  to  search  the  people,  and 
to  see  whether  they  had  not  upon  them  some  concealed 
weapons ;  and  still  the  men  submitted  silently.  But  at 
last  the  French  officer,  seeing  a  very  beautiful  Sicilian 
woman  walking  near  him  with  her  husband,  cried  out  to 
his  soldiers  to  search  the  women  also,  and  he  himself 
laid  hands  upon  the  fairest,  and  pretending  to  look  for 
a  knife  upon  her  he  thrust  his  hand  out  to  her  bosom. 
She,  being  thus  outraged,  shrank  half  fainting  into 
her  husband's  arms.  Then  he  could  bear  no  more,  and 


The  Normans  321 

he  cried  out,  so  that  his  voice  rang  across  the  broad 
meadow,  '  Now  let  these  Frenchmen  die  at  last ! '  And 
as  his  words  pierced  the  air,  the  bells  of  San  Giovanni 
rang  to  Vespers,  and  the  bells  of  the  Church  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  answered  them,  and  the  French  officer  lay 
dead  at  the  feet  of  the  woman  he  had  insulted. 

Unarmed  as  they  were,  with  such  small  knives  as 
some  chanced  to  have,  with  sticks,  with  stones,  and  with 
their  naked  hands,  the  Sicilian  men  did  their  work 
quickly;  but  the  Frenchmen  howled  for  mercy,  and  were 
mostly  killed  upon  their  knees.  When  they  were  all  dead, 
the  men  took  their  weapons  and  went  back  in  haste 
towards  the  city  with  their  women,  and  the  cry  that  meant 
death  was  heard  afar  off  and  went  before  them.  No 
Frenchman  who  met  them  lived  to  turn  back,  and  when 
they  were  in  doubt  as  to  any  man's  nation,  they  held 
him  with  the  knife  at  his  throat  and  made  him  say  the 
one  word  '  Ciceri, '  which  no  Frenchman  could  or  can 
pronounce.  It  was  dusk  when  the  killing  began  in 
Palermo,  and  when  the  dawn  stole  through  the  blood- 
stained streets  not  one  of  the  French  was  left  alive, 
neither  man,  nor  woman,  nor  child.  The  reign  of 
Charles  of  Anjou  was  at  an  end,  and  from  that  day  to 
this  no  man  has  been  king  of  Sicily  who  had  not  some 
Norman  blood. 

The  Sicilian  Vespers  took  place  on  the  thirtieth  of 
March.  The  example  of  Palermo  was  followed  within 
the  month  of  April  by  Messina,  where  the  French  were 
VOL.  ii  y 


322  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

almost  all  massacred,  and  the  fortresses  seized  by  the 
population.  Charles  was  at  Orvieto,  instructing  his 
creature,  Pope  Martin  the  Fourth,  says  Muratori,  in 
the  art  of  governing  the  world ;  but  Villani  tells  us  that 
when  he  heard  the  news  from  Palermo,  he  raised  his 
eyes  to  heaven  and  prayed  that  since  his  good  fortune 
had  begun  to  wane,  'he  might  be  suffered  to  fall  by 
small  degrees.'  He  reached  Naples  before  he  heard 
of  the  rising  in  Messina,  and  at  once  ordered  that  the 
fleet  he  had  gathered  for  invading  the  Eastern  Empire 
should  proceed  to  Messina,  while  he  himself  hastened 
to  the  straits  by  land,  at  the  head  of  the  cavalry.  A 
hundred  and  thirty-three  ships  weighed  anchor ;  the 
land  forces  numbered  five  thousand  horse,  and  he 
crossed  to  Sicily  at  the  end  of  July  and  laid  siege  to 
Messina.  An  apostolic  legate  entered  the  city,  and  his 
eloquence  prevailed  upon  the  inhabitants  to  propose 
terms  of  surrender;  but  Charles  rejected  them  with 
scorn  and  attacked  the  walls,  which  were  defended 
with  the  courage  of  despair  by  men  who  feared  and 
execrated  their  assailants. 

Palermo  raised  the  Pope's  standard  and  sent  ambas- 
sadors to  Martin  the  Fourth,  who  dismissed  them  with 
energy  and  with  threatening  words.  The  defenders  of 
Messina  again  offered  to  surrender  upon  honourable 
terms,  and  the  legate  in  vain  did  his  best  to  persuade 
King  Charles  to  mercy.  The  king's  answer  was  out- 
rageous. He  bade  Messina  deliver  up  eight  hundred 


The  Normans  323 

hostages,  to  be  dealt  with  at  his  pleasure,  and  submit  to 
all  the  fiscal  impositions  and  extortions  he  had  practised 
hitherto.  The  Messinians  answered  that  they  would 
die,  sword  in  hand,  rather  than  obey.  Beside  himself 
with  rage,  Charles  ordered  a  general  assault,  which  was 
repulsed  with  frightful  carnage.  And  so  the  siege  went 
on  for  a  whole  month. 

Meanwhile  the  nobles  of  Palermo  decided  upon  the 
final  step.  They  had  revolted  from  Charles,  their  ad- 
vances had  been  rejected  by  the  Pope,  they  could  not 
hope  to  resist  the  Angevin  without  help  ;  they  met  in 
the  small  church  now  called  the  Martorana,  and  they 
elected  Peter  the  Third  of  Aragon,  the  husband  of  Man- 
fred's daughter,  to  be  king  of  Sicily,  and  his  descend- 
ants after  him.  On  the  thirtieth  of  August,  1282, 
exactly  five  months  after  the  Sicilian  Vespers,  Peter 
of  Aragon  landed  at  Trapani,  with  fifty  galleys,  eight 
hundred  cavalry,  and  ten  thousand  men-at-arms,  all 
trained  soldiers,  for  he  had  been  fighting  the  Moors 
in  Barbary.  But  when  he  came  to  Palermo,  after 
five  days,  the  people  thought  ill  of  his  knights,  from 
their  appearance,  for  their  armour  was  all  tarnished 
and  their  accoutrements  black  with  campaigning,  and 
their  cloaks  were  threadbare,  and  the  light  infantry 
men  were  ill  clad,  and  all  were  sunburnt  and  thin  ;  and 
in  their  hearts  the  people  did  not  believe  that  such  men 
could  deliver  them  from  King  Charles.  Peter  held  a 
parliament,  however,  and  promised  the  nobles  that  he 


324  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

would  maintain  all  the  laws  and  .customs  of  William 
the  Good. 

The  two  Catalan  chronicles  of  Bernat  Desclot  and 
Ramon  Muntaner  give  the  most  circumstantial  accounts 
of  what  followed.  They  have  been  published  in  the 
original  Catalan  language,  in  Barcelona.  The  Neapoli- 
tan historian,  Tomacelli,  seems  to  have  had  access  to 
them  in  manuscript,  but  I  cannot  find  that  they  have 
been  translated. 

Peter  called  out  every  fighting  man  in  Sicily  above 
fifteen  and  under  sixty  years  of  age  to  help  him  against 
Charles,  and  sent  to  him  two  knights  as  ambassadors, 
and  they  were  tolerably  well  received  by  a  party  of 
skirmishers,  who  led  them  to  the  enemy's  camp.  They 
and  their  squires  were  roughly  lodged,  however,  in  a 
church,  without  mattresses  or  blankets,  and  they  slept 
on  some  hay  that  was  there.  Charles  sent  them  two 
bottles  of  wine,  six  loaves  of  very  coarse  black  bread, 
two  roast  pigs,  and  a  kettle  full  of  boiled  cabbage  and 
fresh  pork.  In  the  morning  the  king  sent  for  them, 
and  they  delivered  their  message.  '  My  lord  Charles,' 
said  the  spokesman,  'our  king  of  Aragon  sends  us  to 
you.  That  you  may  believe  we  are  his  messengers, 
behold  this  credential  letter  he  has  given  us.'  '  It  is 
well,'  said  Charles.  '  Speak  what  the  king  of  Aragon 
sends  you  to  say.'  The  ambassador  presented  King 
Peter's  letter.  Charles  was  seated  on  a  couch  covered 
with  rich  silks  ;  he  laid  the  letter  beside  him  unopened. 


The  Normans  325 

'  My  lord  Charles,'  said  the  ambassador,  '  our  lord  the 
king  of  Aragon  sends  us,  and  bids  you  deliver  up  to 
him  the  land  of  Sicily  which  is  his,  and  his  son's,  and 
which  you  have  too  long  most  wrongly  held.  And  the 
people  of  Sicily,  who  are  grievously  oppressed  by  your 
rule,  have  asked  help  of  the  king  of  Aragon.  Where- 
fore the  king  has  determined  to  help  them,  they  being 
his  people  and  of  his  lands.' 

The  message  did  not  lack  distinctness.  When  King 
Charles  heard  it,  he  was  much  surprised,  and  some 
minutes  passed  before  he  answered,  and  he  gnawed 
with  his  teeth  a  little  staff  he  held  in  his  hand.  When 
he  had  thought  a  long  time  he  answered  :  '  Sirs,  Sicily 
belongs  neither  to  the  king  of  Aragon,  nor  to  me,  but 
to  the  Church  of  Rome.  I  desire  you  to  go  to  Messina, 
and  to  bid  the  men  of  the  city,  from  the  king  of  Ara- 
gon, that  they  make  a  truce  with  me  for  eight  days, 
until  we  shall  have  talked  with  you,  and  you  with  us, 
of  those  things  concerning  which  we  have  to  speak.' 
'  Sir,'  said  the  ambassadors,  '  we  will  do  this  willingly  ; 
and  if  they  will  not,  it  shall  not  be  of  our  fault.' 

With  that  they  left  the  king  and  went  before  the  city 
of  Messina,  and  called  to  the  men  on  the  wall,  and  the 
men  inquired  what  they  wished.  '  Barons,'  said  the 
spokesman,  '  we  are  ambassadors  from  the  king  of 
Aragon,  and  we  would  speak  with  your  captain,  Sir 
Alaymo.'  When  the  men  heard  this,  they  went  and  told 
it  to  Sir  Alaymo,  their  captain  ;  and  he  came  at  once 


326  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

and  went  upon  the  wall,  and  asked  of  the  messengers 
what  they  required.  '  Are  you  the  captain  of  Messina  ? ' 
they  asked.  And  he  answered  :  '  Surely,  I  am  indeed 
the  captain  of  Messina.  Why  ask  you  this  ? '  And 
they  told  him,  and  gave  their  message.  '  Surely,' 
answered  the  captain,  '  I  do  not  believe  that  you  are 
messengers  from  the  king  of  Aragon,  and  for  your 
false  words  I  will  not  have  peace  or  truce.  See  that 
you  depart  at  once  and  go  your  way.' 

They  came  and  told  this  to  King  Charles,  and  he 
bade  them  rest  until  the  next  day,  promising  to  take 
counsel  and  give  them  an  answer.  But  on  the  next 
morning  they  learned  that  he  had  secretly  crossed  the 
straits  to  Calabria  during  the  night,  and  three  knights 
came  and  bade  them  return  to  Palermo,  for  King 
Charles  would  send  his  answer  at  his  leisure.  They 
knew,  however,  that  Peter  of  Aragon  was  already  in 
Randazzo,  only  two  days'  ride  from  Messina,  and  they 
found  him  there  and  told  him  all. 

Charles  had  either  fallen  into  his  own  trap,  or  had 
meant  to  abandon  the  siege.  When  it  was  known 
that  he  had  left  Sicily  a  great  part  of  his  army  became 
disorganized,  many  took  to  the  ships  and  sailed  over 
to  Reggio,  and  the  people  of  Messina  sallied  out  against 
those  that  remained  and  killed  many  of  them,  and  the 
rest  slew  all  the  horses  and  burned  all  the  flour  and 
wheat  they  could  not  take  with  them,  and  escaped.  On 
the  very  day  when  the  messengers  reached  Randazzo, 


The  Normans  327 

a  man  came  spurring  towards  evening,  bringing  news 
that  Charles's  army  had  disappeared,  and  so  King  Peter 
rode  down  and  entered  Messina  without  striking  a  blow. 
His  fleet  also  arrived  from  Palermo,  and  when  forty 
of  Charles's  galleys  sailed  out  of  Reggio,  on  the  fifth 
day,  fourteen  Catalan  ships  attacked  them  and  took 
twenty-one,  and  sank  others,  and  put  the  rest  to  flight, 
and  brought  back  many  prisoners  and  a  vast  spoil ;  for 
Charles  had  met  his  match,  and  more,  and  he  had  been 
driven  from  Sicily  forever. 

King  Charles  could  not  have  seen  the  fight  in 
which  his  galleys  were  lost,  as  it  took  place  to  the 
west  of  Scylla  while  he  was  at  Reggio ;  but  his  rage 
knew  no  bounds  when  he  heard  the  news,  and  he 
immediately  conceived  a  treacherous  plan  for  drawing 
King  Peter  into  an  ambush  on  pretence  of  single 
combat.  He  began  by  sending  messengers  to  his 
adversary  with  instructions  to  deliver  a  formal  insult, 
and  that  their  persons  might  be  safe  he  disguised  his 
messengers  as  preaching  friars.  He  sent  them  across 
the  straits  by  night  in  a  boat,  and  coming  before  the 
king  they  boldly  told  him  in  Charles's  name  that  he 
had  not  entered  Sicily  like  a  leal  and  true  man,  but 
that  he  had  entered  it  treacherously,  as  he  should 
not.  But  when  the  king  of  Aragon  heard  these 
words  he  broke  into  a  laugh,  and  pretended  to  attach 
no  importance  to  the  message.  '  Sirs,'  said  he,  '  I 
will  send  my  messengers  together  with  you  to  King 


328  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

Charles,  to  know  from  his  own  lips  whether  what 
you  say  be  true.'  He  chose  out  certain  honourable 
knights  of  high  birth  and  bearing,  and  bade  them 
go  with  the  messengers,  and  when  he  had  instructed 
them  he  commanded  them  that,  if  the  king  confirmed 
the  message,  they  should  deal  with  him  as  with  any 
knight  who  should  attack  their  faith  and  honour,  for 
he  would  do  battle  with  Charles,  hand  to  hand.  The 
knights  went  over  to  Reggio  and  delivered  their  mes- 
sage. Then  Charles  remained  in  thought  for  a  while, 
and  said,  '  Whether  you  say  that  I  have  said  it  or 
not,  I  say  it  now,  that  he  has  entered  Sicily  treach- 
erously and  unjustly,  and  as  he  should  not.'  There- 
fore the  messengers  of  the  king  of  Aragon  answered 
and  said  :  '  Sir,  we  answer  you  these  words  by  com- 
mand of  the  king  of  Aragon  and  Sicily,  our  lord, 
and  we  tell  you  that  any  man  who  says  that  the 
king  has  entered  Sicily  treacherously  and  unjustly, 
speaks  falsely  and  disloyally.  And  he  says  that  he 
will  fight  you,  hand  to  hand,  and  he  gives  you  the 
choice  of  arms,  which  shall  be  as  you  please.' 

Charles  was  enraged  at  this  answer,  and  his  barons 
besought  him  not  to  be  angry,  nor  to  answer  without 
taking  counsel ;  and  thereupon  they  led  him  away 
thence,  and  took  him  into  a  room,  and  there  he  held 
a  council  with  his  barons  and  returned  to  his  senses ; 
and  he  answered  that  he  would  not  fight  the  king  of 
Aragon  in  single  combat,  but  that  he  would  fight 


The  Normans 


329 


with  a  hundred  knights  against  a  hundred.  And  his 
object  in  thus  answering  was  that  wherever  the  com- 
bat took  place  he  should  be  allowed  to  bring  with 
him  enough  men  to  get  possession  of  King  Peter  by 

some   treachery. 

Immediately  after 
this,  further  mes- 
sages were  ex- 
changed, and  it  was 
decided  that  the 
contest  should  take 
place  at  Bordeaux, 
which  belonged  to 
the  king  of  Eng- 
land, who  would 
insure  neutrality 
and  safety  for  all 
those  who  came  to 
fight. 

The  sequel  to 
this  celebrated 
challenge  is  bet- 
ter known  than 

the  details  which  led  to  it,  and  which  I  have  trans- 
lated literally  from  the  Catalan  chronicle.  Charles 
went  to  Bordeaux,  indeed,  but  with  such  a  force 
that  the  English  king's  governor  would  have  been 
powerless  to  save  King  Peter.  The  latter  was  in 


TOWER   IN   THE   CASTLE   OF   FREDERICK    II 
AT    MONTELEONE 


330  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

Catalonia,  but  was  far  too  wise  to  fall  into  the  snare, 
and  yet  too  honourable  not  to  appear  in  the  lists. 
The  story  of  his  secret  ride  through  Spain  reads  like 
a  chapter  from  the  '  Morte  d' Arthur,'  which,  like 
similar  fictions  of  the  age  of  chivalry,  was  doubtless 
imitated  from  the  real  chronicles.  The  story  tells  how 
King  Peter  reached  Bordeaux  in  disguise,  with  three 
knights,  in  the  company  of  a  merchant  whose  servants 
they  all  pretended  to  be,  the  king  himself  being  fully 
armed  under  his  disguise.  The  king  passed  for  the 
rich  merchant's  major-domo,  and  ordered  supper  at 
the  inns,  and  the  three  knights  served  their  supposed 
master  at  table.  Near  Bordeaux  they  left  two  of  the 
knights  with  good  horses  in  case  of  need.  When 
they  reached  the  gates  the  king  stayed  without,  and 
one  of  the  knights  went  in  on  foot  and  sought  out 
King  Peter's  official  representative,  who  had  gone  to 
Bordeaux  openly,  and  bade  him  tell  the  seneschal  to 
go  out  from  the  city,  saying  that  a  messenger  from 
the  king  of  Aragon  was  there,  desiring  to  speak  with 
him.  And  the  seneschal  did  so,  taking  four  French 
knights  with  him,  and  the  Catalan  ambassador,  and  a 
notary  of  the  city.  Peter  did  not  reveal  his  identity, 
but  ascertained  from  the  seneschal  that  Charles  had 
prepared  the  lists  under  the  walls  where  a  gate  led 
directly  into  them  from  the  fortress ;  and  also  that 
the  king  of  England  had  commanded  him,  the  sen- 
eschal, to  give  up  the  city  entirely  to  King  Charles 


The  Normans  331 

during  his  stay,  and  that  if  Peter  appeared  in  the 
lists,  he  would  most  certainly  be  taken  prisoner.  While 
they  were  talking  they  had  ridden  to  the  place,  and 
when  they  were  within,  Peter  set  spurs  to  his  horse 
and  rode  up  and  down  the  enclosed  field.  Then, 
riding  back  together,  the  king  drew  the  seneschal 
aside,  and  asked  him  whether  he  should  know  the 
king  of  Aragon  if  he  saw  him ;  and  the  seneschal 
answered  that  he  should  know  him  well,  for  he  had 
seen  him  at  Toulouse,  and  that  the  king  had  done 
him  great  honour,  and  had  made  him  a  present  of 
two  horses. 

Then  King  Peter  drew  back  his  hood  from  his  face, 
and  said,  '  Look  at  me  well,  if  you  know  me,  for  I  am 
here,  the  king  of  Aragon  ;  and  if  the  king  of  England, 
and  you  in  his  name,  can  insure  my  safety,  I  am  ready 
to  do  battle,  with  a  hundred  knights.'  When  the  sen- 
eschal knew  the  king,  he  wished  to  kiss  his  hand,  but 
the  king  would  not ;  and  the  seneschal  implored  him  to 
escape  at  once,  lest  he  should  be  deceived  and  taken  by 
his  enemies.  Then  said  the  king,  'You  shall  make 
me  a  letter  for  a  testimony  that  I  have  been  on  the 
appointed  day  at  Bordeaux,  in  the  lists  where  the  battle 
was  to  be  fought,  and  that  you  have  told  me  that  you 
cannot  assure  my  safety,  and  that  whereas  the  country 
was  to  have  been  neutral,  the  king  of  England  has 
delivered  it  over  to  King  Charles.'  The  seneschal  an- 
swered, '  Surely,  this  is  true.'  Then  the  notary  who  had 


332  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

been  brought  out  of  the  city  drew  up  the  statement,  and 
the  French  knights  were  called  to  witness  it,  and  when 
they  asked  where  the  king  of  Aragon  was,  he  showed 
himself  to  them,  and  they  were  much  amazed,  and 
bowed  low,  taking  off  their  caps,  and  would  have  kissed 
his  hand,  but  he  would  not  suffer  it.  So  he  rode  away 
towards  Bayonne,  and  it  was  near  evening ;  and  when 
the  seneschal  and  the  knights  had  returned  into  the 
city,  the  sun  had  set,  and  King  Peter  was  many 
miles  away. 

It  would  be  a  pleasant  task  to  tell  the  history  of 
the  war  that  followed  the  Sicilian  Vespers,  from  the 
graphic  chronicles  of  Bernat  Desclot  and  Ramon  Mun- 
taner.  Their  simple  accounts  of  men,  things,  and 
battles  bear  the  stamp  of  truth  and  the  sign  manual  of 
the  eye-witness.  Therein  may  be  found  in  detail  the 
bold  deeds  of  Roger  di  Lauria,  King  Peter's  famous 
admiral,  and  all  that  brave  Queen  Constance  did  with 
his  help  to  hold  Sicily  while  Peter  himself  was  fighting 
against  the  king  of  France  on  his  own  borders,  and 
against  his  own  brother  James  of  Majorca;  and  how 
at  last  the  Admiral  Roger  defeated  the  king  of  France 
and  drove  him  from  the  walls  of  Gerona.  And  at 
last,  after  much  brave  fighting,  and  having  secured 
the  succession  of  all  his  dominions,  including  Sicily,  to 
his  sons,  King  Peter  of  Aragon  passed  away  peacefully, 
after  a  long  illness,  on  the  eve  of  Saint  Martin's  Day, 
in  the  month  of  November,  in  the  year  1285.  His  great 


HEAD   OF   A   MODERN    SICILIAN,   SHOWING 
ROMAN   TYPE 


332  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

been  brought  out  of  the  city  drew  up  the  statement,  and 
the  French  knights  were  called  to  witness  it,  and  when 
they  asked  where  the  king  of  Aragon  was,  he  showed 
himself  to  them,  and  they  were  much  amazed,  and 
bowed  low,  taking  off  their  caps,  and  would  have  kissed 
his  hand,  but  he  would  not  suffer  it.  So  he  rode  away 
towards  Bayonne,  and  it  was  near  evening;  and  when 
the  seneschal  and  the  knights  had  returned  into  the 
city,  the  sun  had  set,  and  King  Peter  was  many 
miles  away. 

It  would  be  a  pleasant  task  to  tell  the  history  of 
the  war  that  followed  the  Sicilian  Vespers,  from  the 
graphic  chronicles  of  Bernat  Desclot  and  Ramon  Mun- 
taner.  Their  simple  accounts  of  men,  things,  and 
battles  bear  the  stamp  of  truth  and  the  sign  manual  of 
the  eye-witness.  Therein  may  be  found  in  detail  the 
bold  deeds  of  Roger  di  Lauria,  King  Peter's  famous 
admiral,  and  all  that  brave  Queen  Constance  did  with 
his  help  to  hold  Sicily  while  Peter  himself  was  fighting 
against  the  king  of  France  on  his  own  borders,  and 
against  his  own  brother  James  of  Majorca ;  and  how 
at  last  the  Admiral  Roger  defeated  the  king  of  France 
and  drove  him  from  the  walls  of  Gerona.  And  at 
last,  after  much  brave  fighting,  and  having  secured 
the  succession  of  all  his  dominions,  including  Sicily,  to 
his  sons,  King  Peter  of  Aragon  passed  away  peacefully, 

after  a  lofig.iUnfis.s,  im  the  eve  of  Saint  Martin's  Day, 

OHIWfiWgr'.HXlJlOIc:    M*3QOM  A  HD  QA3H 
in  the  month  of  Novembenjn  the  vear  1285.     His  great 
an  IT   HAMOfl 


The  Normans  333 

enemy,  Charles  of  Anjou,  had  died  in  Foggia  in  Jan- 
uary of  the  same  year,  while  preparing  a  formidable 
army  with  which  to  invade  Sicily,  while  the  French 
were  attacking  King  Peter  in  Catalonia.  He  left  his 
kingdom  at  war  with  Sicily  and  his  eldest  son  Charles 
a  prisoner  in  the  hands  of  Queen  Constance.  Nor  was 
the  young  prince's  captivity  without  danger ;  Pope 
Martin  the  Fourth  had  sent  legates  to  Messina  to 
negotiate  for  his  liberation,  and"  as  they  could  not 
obtain  it  on  the  terms  they  demanded,  they  pro- 
nounced the  major  excommunication  against  all  the 
Sicilians  and  the  royal  house  of  Aragon.  Three  years 
had  not  passed  since  the  general  massacre  of  the 
French,  and  the  people  of  Messina  now  rose  in  tumult 
and  attacked  the  prisons  where  the  French  prince  and 
his  companions  were  confined.  Crying  out  for  ven- 
geance for  the  death  of  Manfred  and  Conradin,  they 
heaped  up  wood  against  the  prison  doors,  and  more 
than  sixty  French  nobles  perished  miserably  in  the 
flames.  The  young  prince,  now  Charles  the  Second, 
was  saved,  we  know  not  exactly  how,  but  some  say 
that  he  had  been  secretly  removed  from  the  prison 
and  sent  to  Catalonia  before  the  attack.  Soon  after 
this  Pope  Martin  the  Fourth  died  also,  having,  as 
Muratori  says,  emptied  the  treasury  of  his  excommuni- 
cations upon  all  Ghibellines,  and  upon  whomsoever 
chanced  to  be  the  enemy  of  his  master,  Charles  of 
Anjou. 


334     .         The  Rulers  of  the  South 

In  Later  Times 

MY  task  is  almost  ended.  I  have  traced  the  story 
of  the  south  from  the  times  of  the  first  Greek  settle- 
ments to  the  establishment  of  the  house  of  Aragon 
on  the  Sicilian  throne,  through  a  period  of  about  two 
thousand  years,  endeavouring  to  spare  the  reader 
all  unnecessary  names  and  dates,  the  accumulation 
of  which  has  made  the  history  of  Italy  so  difficult 
a  study  for  persons  of  ordinary  memory.  In  the  few 
remaining  pages  I  shall  briefly  explain  the  succession 
of  events  that  led  directly  from  the  coronation  of 
Peter  of  Aragon  to  the  sovereignty  of  Charles  the 
Fifth,  requesting  the  reader  to  remember  that  this 
part  of  the  story  of  the  south  is  a  history  in  itself, 
which  alone  would  fill  a  great  space,  but  that  it  is 
also  an  important  part  of  that  history  of  Italy  which 
exists,  indeed,  in  several  hundred  volumes  written  in 
all  languages,  but  which  unfortunately  does  not  exist 
as  a  single  book  in  one  tongue. 

The  first  result  of  the  war  of  the  Sicilian  Vespers 
was  that  two  sovereigns  called  themselves  kings  of 
Sicily,  namely,  those  of  the  house  of  Aragon,  who 
remained  in  possession,  and  those  of  the  house  of 
Anjou,  who  never  recovered  what  Charles  had  lost. 
The  kingdoms  were  therefore  called  the  '  Two  Sicilies,' 
the  one  being  the  island  and  the  other  the  mainland, 
with  Naples  for  its  capital,  and  they  continued  to  be 


In  Later  Times  335 

so  called  even  after  they  were  finally  united  under 
Ferdinand  the  Catholic,  who  was  the  Second  of  Sicily, 
the  Second  of  Aragon,  the  First  of  united  Naples  and 
Sicily,  and  the  Third  of  Naples. 

The  next  matter  to  be  understood  is  that  the  king- 
dom of  Sicily  under  the  Aragonese  kings  was  often 
given  or  left  by  them  to  their  sons  and  brothers  as  a 
separate  and  independent  monarchy.  King  Peter  left 
it  to  his  second  son,  James,  who  only  became  king 
of  Aragon  when  his  elder  brother  died,  and  he  in 
turn  gave  Sicily  to  his  younger  brother  Frederick, 
whose  direct  male  descent  failed,  and  whose  great- 
granddaughter  Mary  married  the  heir  of  Aragon,  who 
became  Martin  the  First  of  Sicily,  but  died  childless, 
leaving  Sicily  to  his  father,  Martin  the  Second  of 
Sicily.  But  the  father  had  no  other  children,  and  at 
his  death  both  f  Aragon  and  Sicily  went  to  the  son 
of  Martin's  sister,  who  had  married  King  John  of 
Castile,  the  Norman  blood  descending  through  her 
alone,  as  it  had  descended  through  Constance,  Man- 
fred's daughter,  to  all  the  house  of  Aragon  and  Cas- 
tile, and  to  '  Mad  Joan,'  the  elder  sister  of  Katherine 
of  Aragon,  Henry  the  Eighth's  unhappy  queen ;  and 
by  'Mad  Joan'  it  descended  to  Charles  the  Fifth  and 
all  the  house  of  Austria. 

This  fragment  of  genealogy  will  serve  to  show  how 
the  kingdoms  of  the  Two  Sicilies  became  involved  in 
the  history  of  Europe,  and  how  the  succession  to  them 


336 


The  Rulers  of  the  South 


became  disputable,  since  the  whole  imperial  house 
of  Austria  is  descended  from  the  same  '  Mad  Joan.' 
It  is  hard  to  imagine  anything  more  confusing,  for 
after  her  all  the  royal  claimants  were  equally  Haps- 
burgs,  since  they  were  all  descended  from  her  hus- 
band, Philip  of  Hapsburg,  Archduke  of 
Austria,  the  sole  progenitor  of  the  Austrian 
emperors  and  Spanish  kings  that  came 
after  him,  and,  by  the  marriage  of  Anne 
of  Austria  with  Lewis  the  Thirteenth  of 
France,  the  ancestor  of  all  the  Spanish 
and  Neapolitan  Bourbons,  who  are  of  the 
house  of  Austria  only  by  the  female  side, 
their  male  progenitor  having  been 
Philip,  the  younger  brother  of  the 
'  Second  Dauphin,'  and  a  grandson 
of  Lewis  the  Fourteenth  of  France. 
After  the  conquest  of  Sicily  by  Peter 
of  Aragon,  and  the  establishment  of 
the  Angevin  dynasty  in  Naples,  the 
principal  causes  of  disturbance  lay  in 
questions  of  succession,  so  far  as 
Sicily  was  concerned,  and,  for  Naples,  in  the  relations 
of  that  kingdom  with  the  Holy  See,  which  were  not 
by  any  means  always  friendly.  The  great  Roman 
houses  of  Colonna  and  Orsini,  whose  history  is  so 
closely  connected  with  that  of  the  popes  in  the  middle 
ages,  fought  across  the  borders  of  the  kingdom  of 


STATUE   OF    SAINT 

URBAN   AT   LA 

CAVA 


In  Later  Times  337 

Naples,  and  more  than  once  the  Colonna  took  refuge 
in  the  south,  while  the  Orsini  lorded  it  in  Rome ;  but 
sometimes  also  the  Orsini  got  posssesion  of  great  lands 
in  the  southern  country,  and  their  ancient  arms  are 
carved  over  the  doors  of  more  than  one  old  castle  in 
the  wild  mountains  of  the  Basilicata.  To  name  one 
only,  Muro  was  theirs, — the  vast  stronghold  in  which 
Joan  the  First  at  last  paid  for  her  many  crimes  with 
her  life,  a  place  which  few  have  visited,  but  which  gives 
a  better  idea  of  the  existence  led  by  the  barons  of  the 
fourteenth  century  than  any  castle  I  have  examined. 

Joan  the  First  of  Naples  came  to  the  throne  in  the 
year  1343,  being  at  that  time  a  beautiful  girl  sixteen 
years  of  age.  She  was  the  granddaughter  of  good 
King  Robert,  surnamed  the  Wise,  who  was  himself  the 
grandson  of  Charles  of  Anjou,  and  whose  only  son, 
Joan's  father,  died  before  him.  She  was  already  married 
to  the  young  Andrew,  brother  of  the  king  of  Hungary, 
and  it  had  been  understood  that  when  she  succeeded  to 
the  throne  her  husband  was  to  take  the  title  of  King 
of  Naples ;  but  when  the  coronation  took  place,  the 
cardinal  legate  who  performed  the  ceremony  crowned 
Joan  only,  to  the  mortification  and  disappointment  of 
Andrew  and  his  many  Hungarian  courtiers.  The  latter 
were  a  cause  of  dissension  between  their  master  and 
the  queen;  they  brought  the  manners  and  bearing  of 
a  half  barbarous  nation  to  a  court  that  had  at  first 
astonished  the  south  by  its  magnificence,  and  which 

VOL.   II  Z 


338  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

had  reached  a  high  degree  of  civilization  and  outward 
refinement  since  the  days  of  its  first  king.  In  strong 
contrast  to  these  rough  Hungarians,  who  were  insolent 
when  they  were  sober,  and  dangerous  when  they  were 
drunk,  Joan  saw  around  her  her  numerous  cousins 
of  the  Durazzo  line,  who  all  enjoyed  the  dignity  of 
princes  of  the  blood,  and  the  chief  of  whom,  Charles 
of  Durazzo,  had  married  Joan's  younger  sister  Mary.  It 
was  natural,  perhaps,  that  the  queen's  antipathy  should 
increase  daily ;  and  it  was  equally  natural,  on  the  other 
hand,  that  Andrew  should  feel  himself  slighted  and  in- 
jured because  he  had  not  received  the  promised  crown; 
and  in  the  meanwhile  the  princes  secretly  plotted,  each 
hoping  to  obtain  it  for  himself.  In  those  times  it  was 
almost  inevitable  that  such  a  condition  of  things  should 
end  in  a  tragedy,  and  it  was  not  long  in  coming. 

In  the  year  after  Joan's  coronation,  Andrew's  friends 
at  Avignon  succeeded  in  persuading  Pope  Clement  the 
Sixth  to  consent  to  his  coronation,  and  to  give  his 
consent  a  practical  shape  by  ordering  the  ceremony  to 
take  place  at  once,  and  by  sending  a  cardinal  legate  to 
Naples  to  perform  it.  The  princes  understood  well 
enough  that  if  Andrew  were  once  crowned  their  own 
chances  would  be  gone ;  Joan  detested  her  husband, 
and  let  it  be  understood  by  Charles  of  Durazzo  that 
she  would  be  glad  to  be  rid  of  him.  Whether  she 
actually  suggested  the  murder  or  not,  it  is  not  easy 
to  say ;  it  is  generally  believed  that  she  did,  and  she 


In   Later  Times  339 

suffered  for  it  in  the  end.  It  was  clear  to  those  who 
wished  Andrew's  death  that  it  must  take  place  quickly, 
and  it  is  quite  certain  that  Joan  was  well  aware  of  the 
plot. 

The  chronicle  of  Este  gives  a  full  list  of  the  conspira- 
tors, and  describes  the  murder  as  follows,  saying  that 
in  order  to  plan  it  they  met  together  beforehand  in  a 
certain  castle  by  the  sea.  They  then  came  and  told 
the  queen  that  the  deed  could  not  be  done  in  Naples, 
where  Andrew  was  too  well  guarded,  and  the  queen, 
whom  the  Latin  chronicle  rarely  mentions  without  an 
epithet  which  I  shall  leave  to  the  imagination  of  the 
reader,  persuaded  the  king  to  go  with  her  and  spend 
the  month  of  September  in  Aversa,  inviting  all  the 
conspirators  to  accompany  them.  The  conspirators 
there  agreed  with  the  two  chamberlains  that  the  latter 
should  open  the  door  to  the  king's  chamber  when  they 
desired  it;  and  the  queen  consented  to  these  things, 
and  on  the  appointed  night  they  entered.  Then  Bel- 
tram,  the  son  of  a  natural  son  of  King  Robert,  and  the 
principal  conspirator,  seized  the  king  by  the  hair ;  but 
the  king  dragged  himself  back  and  said,  '  This  is  a  base 
jest.'  Then  Beltram  tried  to  throw  the  king,  but  the 
king  seized  his  hand  between  his  teeth,  and  did  not  let 
it  go  until  he  had  bitten  the  whole  piece  out.  But 
Beltram's  companion  slipped  a  noose  round  the  king's 
throat,  and  the  two  together  drew  it  and  twisted  it  so 
that  he  died.  Having  done  this,  they  thought  of  bury- 


34-Q  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

ing  him  in  a  stable  ;  but  as  they  were  carrying  his 
body  down  the  stairs,  they  fancied  that  they  heard 
some  of  the  knights  coming,  and  being  afraid,  they 
brought  the  body  back  to  the  hall  above  and  took 
counsel  how  they  should  hide  it.  At  last  they  threw  it 
out  of  the  window  into  the  pleasure  garden,  and  then 
each  went  to  his  own  room.  Now  the  nurse  of  the 
dead  king,  who  had  come  with  him  from  Hungary,  and 
who  always  suspected  that  some  harm  would  befall  him 
through  the  princes  who  lived  at  the  court,  went  into 
the  king's  room,  and  there  she  saw  the  queen  sitting 
beside  the  bed,  but  she  did  not  see  the  king.  She 
inquired  of  the  queen  saying,  '  Where  is  my  master  ? ' 
The  queen  answered,  '  I  know  not  where  he  is ;  thy 
master  is  far  too  young  ! '  Then  the  nurse,  perceiving 
that  she  was  ill-disposed,  left  the  room,  taking  a  light  to 
search  for  her  master,  and  looking  towards  the  pleasure 
garden,  it  seemed  to  her  that  she  saw  a  miraculous 
light  there,  which  was  intended  to  reveal  the  crime. 
She  saw  the  king  himself  lying  upon  the  grass,  and 
thinking  him  asleep  she  went  back  to  the  queen.  '  My 
lady,'  said  she,  'the  king  sleeps  in  the  garden.'  The 
queen  answered,  '  Let  him  sleep.'  But  she  knew  that 
he  was  dead.  The  nurse,  who  loved  him  not  a  little, 
went  into  the  garden  and  saw  him  dead  on  the  grass, 
strangled  by  the  noose,  and  with  his  boots  on,  of  which 
one  was  white  and  the  other  red,  and  one  of  his 
leathern  hose  was  embroidered  with  gold,  but  the  other 


In  Later  Times 

was  black.  In  the  king's  mouth  she  found  the  piece 
of  Beltram's  hand  which  he  had  bitten  out.  Then  the 
nurse  began  to  weep  most  bitterly,  and  by  the  sound  of 
her  weeping  the  crime  was  known.  So  the  queen  and 
her  friends  mounted  their  horses  and  returned  to 
Naples,  and  caused  the  king's  body  to  be  brought 
thither  and  buried  by  night. 

The  chronicle  of  Este  distinctly  states  that  Charles, 


CASTEL  NUOVO,  NAPLES 

Duke  of  Durazzo,  and  the  princes  of  Taranto,  one  of 
whom  Joan  afterwards  married,  were  not  among  the 
conspirators,  and  that  in  the  riot  which  took  place  on 
the  next  day,  they  led  the  people  to  the  grave,  and 
exhumed  the  body  in  order  to  be  sure  of  the  king's 
death,  and  then  painted  an  image  of  him  on  a  banner, 
with  the  noose  round  his  neck,  and  besieged  the  queen 
and  the  murderers,  probably  in  the  Castel  Nuovo, 
which  still  overlooks  the  arsenal.  Although  they 


342  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

burned  the  doors  and  almost  forced  an  entrance,  they 
were  driven  back,  and  at  last  sent  an  embassy  request- 
ing the  queen  to  give  up  the  traitors.  This  she  flatly 
refused  to  do,  and  the  ambassadors  remained  shut  up 
in  the  castle.  But  she,  being  young  and  badly  fright- 
ened by  the  storm  she  had  raised,  at  last  consented  to 
give  up  the  conspirators  with  the  exception  of  Bel- 
tram  and  his  father ;  and  the  sea-gate  of  the  castle 
was  opened,  and  the  conspirators  were  taken  out  and 
put  on  board  of  two  galleys  to  be  removed  to  the 
Castel  dell'  Uovo  ;  but  as  the  governor  of  the  castle 
had  no  orders  from  the  queen  he  refused  to  admit 
them,  and  they  were  shut  up  in  Duke  Charles's  own 
prisons.  Beltram  and  his  father  escaped  to  the  castle 
of  Sant'  Agata,  near  the  summit  of  the  pass  between 
Garigliano  and  Sparanisi,  but  the  duke  besieged  them, 
took  them  alive,  and  brought  them  back  to  Naples, 
where  they  had  the  privilege  of  dying  by  poison,  as 
being  the  son  and  grandson  of  King  Robert.  The 
other  conspirators  were  tortured  and  hanged,  and  one 
of  the  ladies  who  had  taken  part  was  burned  alive. 
The  queen  alone  escaped,  remaining  in  her  castle  all 
the  time.  The  chronicle  of  Este  speaks  of  Charles 
of  Durazzo  as  if  he  had  been  quite  innocent  of  An- 
drew's death,  but  Muratori  says  that  he  was  believed 
to  be  the  '  manipulator  of  this  great  iniquity.' 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed   that  any  kingdom  could 
hold   together   under   such    a   sovereign    as   Joan    the 


In  Later  Times  343 

First,  and  her  long  life  was  spent  in  frantic  efforts 
to  keep  her  throne,  and  in  attempting  to  counteract 
each  crime  she  committed  by  one  still  more  enormous. 
She  could  not  save  herself  by  allowing  Charles  of 
Durazzo  to  execute  her  husband's  murderers,  nor  by 
marrying  her  cousin  Luigi  of  Taranto,  nor  by  obtain- 
ing a  formal  acquittal  for  herself  in  Rome.  She  was 
obliged  to  escape  by  night  in  a  galley  before  the 
advance  of  the  Hungarians,  who  were  led  to  ven- 
geance by  their  king,  the  murdered  Andrew's  brother, 
and  she  took  refuge  in  her  own  Provence,  where  she 
was,  nevertheless,  confined  like  a  captive,  because  the 
Pope  distrusted  her.  The  king  took  Aversa,  and 
treated  with  the  princes,  and  they  dined  at  his  table ; 
but  after  dinner,  says  the  chronicle,  the  king  made 
his  men  take  their  arms,  as  if  he  meant  to  ride  over 
to  Naples,  and  then  he  suddenly  asked  to  see  the 
passage  whence  his  brother's  body  had  been  thrown. 
Standing  there,  he  turned  to  Charles  of  Durazzo  and 
accused  him  of  the  deed,  and  the  Hungarian  soldiers 
killed  the  duke  where  he  stood,  and  threw  his  body 
into  the  garden :  and  the  king  sent  the  other  princes 
to  Hungary,  where  they  were  imprisoned.  During 
nearly  forty  years  Joan  fought,  intrigued,  murdered, 
and  fought  again,  adopted  Lewis  of  Anjou  for  her 
successor,  and  perished  miserably  at  last  in  Muro,  by 
the  order  of  another  Charles  of  Durazzo,  who  at  last 
got  her  kingdom  and  held  it,  and  left  it  to  his  chil- 


344  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

dren.  They  died  childless,  the  last  being  another 
Joan,  called  the  Second,  who  adopted  first  one  succes- 
sor, Alfonso  of  Aragon,  and  then  another,  Rene  of 
Anjou;  and  Alfonso  took  all,  whereby  the  house  of 
Aragon  united  the  Two  Sicilies  under  one  crown. 

Not  long  after  the  first  Joan's  death  at  Muro,  the 
throne  of  Sicily  was  shaken  by  the  mad  attempt  of  Ber- 
nardo Cabrera,  the  old  Count  of  Modica,  to  marry  the 
widowed  queen  by  force,  and  seize  the  kingship.  Mar- 
tin the  First  had  died  childless,  and  was  succeeded  by 
his  father,  while  his  widow,  the  young  and  beautiful 
Blanche  of  Navarre,  became  vicar  and  lieutenant  of 
Sicily.  Then  the  elder  Martin  died  also,  and  for 
more  than  two  years  the  throne  remained  vacant,  until 
Ferdinand  the  First,  the  son  of  Martin's  sister,  was 
crowned  as  the  only  legitimate  successor.  Meanwhile, 
six  other  claimants  aspired  to  the  crown,  and  the  confu- 
sion was  indescribable.  Cabrera  was  not  one  of  them, 
for  he  could  boast  of  no  royal  blood ;  he  was  Count  of 
Modica,  Grand  Justiciary  of  the  Kingdom,  and  one  of 
the  greatest  nobles  in  Sicily ;  but  he  had  conceived  a 
mad  passion  for  Blanche,  and  he  believed  that  by  mar- 
rying her  he  could  grasp  the  crown. 

A  parliament  was  'held  in  Taormina,  and  certain 
propositions  were  formulated  by  the  wisest  men  there  ; 
old  Bernardo  Cabrera  opposed  them  all,  .claimed  the 
right  to  rule  Sicily  in  virtue  of  his  high  office,  and  at 
once  formed  a  party  among  the  barons,  ever  anxious  for 


In  Later  Times  345 

change.  He  swore  loudly  that  he  did  not  mean  to  per- 
secute the  queen,  who  would  not  resign  her  lieutenant- 
ship  of  the  kingdom,  and  that  he  meant  to  hold  the 
country  for  the  crown  of  Aragon ;  but  he  won  over  the 
captain  of  the  queen's  troops,  and  before  long  he  be- 
sieged her  in  her  castle  at  Catania.  He  sought  an 
interview  with  her  under  a  truce,  and  she,  says  the  old 
Jesuit  historian,  Francesco  Aprile,  agreed  to  speak  with 
him  from  the  high  poop  of  the  galley,  he  standing  be- 
low her  on  a  bridge.  In  this  ridiculous  situation  the 
count,  '  intoxicated  by  his  insane  love  and  boundless  am- 
bition, implored  the  queen  to  marry  him.'  Then  with 
a  scornful  smile,  at  once  in  surprise  and  contempt,  she 
answered  only,  '  Oh,  you  rotten  old  man!'  Thereupon 
she  turned  away  at  once  to  Torres,  to  whom  the  galley 
belonged,  and  bade  him  put  to  sea ;  and  she  sailed  away 
to  Syracuse  for  greater  safety.  But  Cabrera,  furious 
at  the  insult,  and  more  madly  in  love  than  ever,  pursued 
her  thither,  and  besieged  her  again  in  the  old  castle 
of  the  Marsetto  on  Ortygia,  between  the  great  and 
the  small  harbours.  He  battered  the  walls  with  siege 
engines,  and  in  vain  attempted  to  get  in,  and  at 
last,  in  impotent  rage,  he  pelted  the  stone  walls  with 
mud  and  garbage.  She  was  at  last  rescued  by  John 
Moncada  and  Torres,  who  arrived  in  the  latter's 
galley  at  night,  and  fell  upon  Cabrera  so  suddenly 
that  the  old  man  fought  for  his  life  in  his  white 
nightcap.  Queen  Blanche  was  conveyed  on  board 


346  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

the  vessel  during  the  fighting,  and  the  galley  set  sail 
for  Palermo. 

Even  there  she  was  not  safe.  She  lodged  in  the 
great  Chiaramonte  palace,  now  the  Palazzo  dei  Tri- 
bunali,  and  once  the  seat  of  the  Inquisition.  Cabrera 
landed  at  Trapani,  and  advanced  stealthily  through  his 
own  possessions  by  way  of  Alcamo,  enjoining  the  ut- 
most secrecy  upon  his  vassals,  and  guarding  all  the 
passes  and  roads,  lest  any  one  should  warn  the  queen 
of  his  approach.  He  rode  out  of  Alcamo  at  midday, 
and  reached  Palermo  at  dead  of  night,  when  the  whole 
city  was  sleeping.  But,  cautious  though  he  was,  the 
clanking  of  his  men's  armour  in  the  street  waked  the 
queen.  In  her  nightdress,  her  hair  in  wild  confusion, 
she  was  covered  rather  by  darkness  than  by  any  gar- 
ments, says  Aprile.  Letting  themselves  out  of  the 
palace  by  a  postern,  she  and  her  damsels  fled  at  full 
speed  along  the  shore,  till  they  reached  the  old  harbour, 
where  Torres's  galley  was  moored.  Though  it  was 
January,  the  terrified  women  waded  out  as  far  as  they 
could  towards  the  vessel,  and  called  out  with  tears, 
in  desperate  anxiety,  till  Torres  himself  was  wakened 
by  their  cries,  and  sent  a  boat  off  to  bring  them  on 
board.  He  instantly  weighed  anchor  and  sailed  to  the 
strong  castle  of  Solunto,  a  few  miles  to  the  eastward  of 
Palermo.  He  had  saved  the  queen  a  third  time  with 
the  same  galley. 

Cabrera  entered  the  Chiaramonte  palace  a  few  min- 


In  Later  Times  347 

utes  after  the  queen  had  escaped.  Her  bed  was  still 
warm  when  he  entered  her  room.  '  I  have  lost  the 
partridge,  but  I  have  her  nest ! '  he  cried,  as  he  threw 
himself  upon  the  couch  and  furiously  kissed  the  pillow 
where  the  queen's  head  had  lately  lain. 

A  fourth  time  he  besieged  her  in  Solunto,  but  she 
was  not  without  friends,  and  they  sent  word  to  Cabrera 
that  he  must  cease  to  persecute  her,  and  they  appeared 
in  arms  to  enforce  their  message.  One  day,  when  the 
count  was  examining  the  trenches  with  which  he  had 
surrounded  the  castle,  he  was  suddenly  surrounded  and 
taken  by  the  queen's  friends,  and  before  long  he  found 
himself  a  close  prisoner  in  the  strong  castle  of  Motta 
Santa  Anastasia,  which  had  been  built  by  Count  Roger 
in  old  times.  He  was  locked  up  in  a  disused  rain-water 
cistern,  and  he  was  no  sooner  installed  than  the  rain, 
which  fell  heavily  at  that  season,  was  turned  in  upon 
him.  The  guards  pretended  not  to  hear  his  cries,  the 
water  rose  from  his  ankles  to  his  knees,  and  from  his 
knees  to  his  waist,  till  his  prison  pallet  was  floating 
beside  him  in  the  dark ;  then  at  last  the  water  was 
turned  off,  and  the  wretched  Cabrera  was  dragged  out 
and  transferred  to  a  noisome  den  of  vermin  in  a  high 
part  of  the  castle.  There  he  was  constantly  attended 
by  a  soldier,  whom  he  attempted  to  win  over,  and  to 
whom  a  thousand  pieces  of  gold  were  actually  paid  by 
the  count's  friends.  But  the  soldier  had  kept  his  mas- 
ter well  informed,  and  when  the  count  was  allowed  to 


348  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

escape,  as  he  thought,  by  climbing  down  a  strong  rope 
hung  from  his  window,  he  dropped  into  a  net  which 
had  been  previously  arranged  to  catch  him,  and  in 
which  he  remained  exposed  to  the  view  and  contemptu- 
ous jests  of  the  whole  garrison.  He  must  have  been 
glad  that  the  beautiful  Blanche  of  Navarre  could  not 
see  him  in  such  an  undignified  situation.  When  his 
enemies  were  weary  of  mocking  him,  he  was  taken  back 
to  his  prison,  and  kept  there  until  the  election  of  Ferdi- 
nand the  Just. 

This  event  took  place  in  the  year  1412,  and  put  an 
end  at  once  to  the  dissensions  that  distracted  Sicily  and 
to  the  claims  of  the  other  six  aspirants  to  the  throne. 
It  put  an  end  also  to  the  independence  of  the  Sicilian 
kingdom,  and  henceforth  the  latter  was  ruled  by  vice- 
roys until  modern  times,  excepting  during  the  short 
reign  of  Victor  Amadeus  of  Savoy. 

It  was  soon  to  be  united  with  that  of  Naples,  for 
Ferdinand's  son,  Alfonso  the  Magnanimous,  claimed 
and  held  the  inheritance  left  him  by  adoption  by 
Queen  Joan  the  Second,  the  last  of  the  Angevins ;  and 
though  at  his  death  the  kingdoms  were  divided  between 
his  son  and  his  brother,  they  were  before  long  to  be  per- 
manently united  under  Ferdinand  the  Catholic,  Alfonso's 
nephew. 

Old  Aprile  says  that  when  Sicily  was  united  with 
Castile  she  was  one  of  the  fairest  jewels  set  in  the 
crown  of  Spain,  and  that  the  union  was  the  special 


In  Later  Times  349 

work  of  Divine  Providence.  With  Ferdinand's  conquest 
of  the  Moors  and  of  Granada  we  have  nothing  to  do, 
but  the  date  of  his  final  victory  is  that  of  a  serious  out- 
break against  the  Jews  in  Sicily.  As  usual,  the  Hebrews 
were  accused  of  having  caught  and  crucified  a  Chris- 
tian child  on  Good  Friday  ;  and  the  chronicle,  to  which 
those  who  please  may  lend  credence,  asserts  that  the 
deed  was  discovered  because  the  body  was  thrown  into 
a  well  of  which  the  water  was  stained  with  blood,  and 
that,  by  a  miracle,  the  water  rose  suddenly  and  deluged 
the  streets  with  a  red  stream.  The  natural  consequence 
was  a  massacre  of  the  Jews,  and  their  synagogue  was 
converted  into  a  church.  This  was  neither  the  first 
nor  the  last  time  that  such  persecutions  took  place  in 
Sicily. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  Charles  the  Eighth  conceived 
the  idea  of  seizing  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  and  his  inces- 
sant wars  in  Italy,  in  which  Gonzalvo  de  Cordova,  who 
led  the  Spanish  armies,  earned  the  surname  of  the 
Great  Captain,  led  directly  to  the  treaty  of  Granada 
made  in  1 500  between  King  Ferdinand  and  Lewis  the 
Twelfth  of  France,  Charles's  successor.  By  that  agree- 
ment the  two  sovereigns  allied  themselves  in  order  to 
take  the  kingdom  of  Naples  from  Frederick  the  Fourth, 
who  was  King  Ferdinand's  first  cousin  once  removed. 
Ferdinand's  chief  ground  for  this  act  of  spoliation  was 
that  the  unfortunate  King  Frederick  of  Naples  had 
invoked  the  help  of  the  Turks  against  his  enemies.  It 


350  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

was  agreed,  therefore,  that  Ferdinand,  who  was  already 
king  of  Sicily,  should  have  Apulia  and  Calabria,  and 
that  Lewis  the  Twelfth  of  France  should  take  Naples 
with  its  royal  title,  the  latter  being  readily  confirmed  by 
Pope  Alexander  the  Sixth,  the  too  famous  Borgia  Pope. 
Gonzalvo  de  Cordova  was  at  that  time  the  vassal  of 
King  Frederick,  and  in  order  to  escape  the  charge 
of  treason  he  immediately  renounced  the  territory  of 
Monte  Sant'  Angelo  in  the  kingdom  of  Naples.  The 
success  of  the  joint  armies  of  Gonzalvo  and  the  Duke 
of  Nemours  was  all  that  either  could  desire,  but  it  was 
impossible  that  their  respective  sovereigns  should  long 
remain  in  accord,  and  the  captains  soon  quarrelled 
about  the  boundaries  of  the  conquered  provinces.  The 
French  having  occupied  Melfi,  Gonzalvo  de  Cordova 
retorted  by  seizing  places  already  taken  for  King  Lewis, 
and  he  established  himself  in  Barletta,  and  soon  inflicted 
a  defeat  upon  his  enemies,  taking  prisoner  the  Duke  of 
Nemours'  colleague.  It  was  at  this  time,  in  the  year 
1503,  that  the  famous  encounter  took  place  known  in 
history  as  the  Sfida  di  Barletta,  in  which,  on  the 
thirteenth  of  February,  thirteen  Italian  knights  fought 
as  many  Frenchmen  in  tournament  in  the  sight  of 
both  armies,  and  beat  them. 

The  celebrated  fight  was  brought  about  in  the  fol- 
lowing manner.  The  account  I  give  is  taken  from 
Zurita's  'Annals  of  Aragon,'  and  seems  to  be  as 
accurate  as  any.  It  chanced  that  in  a  skirmish  near 


In  Later  Times  351 

Barletta  a  number  of  the  French  were  taken  prisoners, 
and  among  them  was  a  certain  knight,  called  de  la 
Motte ;  and  while  he  was  captive,  he  began  to  boast 
that  the  French  were  better  men  than  the  Italians, 
whereupon  a  great  discussion  arose,  and  the  Italian 
knights  went  to  Gonzalvo  de  Cordova,  begging  him 
that  they  might  have  a  chance  of  defending  their 
national  honour,  which  they  considered  that  de  la 
Motte  had  assailed.  The  result  was  that  thirteen 
Italian  knights,  chief  of  whom  was  Ettore  Fieramosca 
of  Capua,  met  an  equal  number  of  French  champions, 
on  the  understanding  that  each  vanquished  knight 
should  pay  one  hundred  ducats  for  his  liberty,  and 
lose  his  horse  and  arms.  The  Duke  of  Nemours  could 
not  or  would  not  give  surety  that  the  lists  should  be 
undisturbed,  but  Gonzalvo  replied  that  he  would  pro- 
tect them,  and  marched  out  all  his  army,  horse  and 
foot,  to  a  place  five  miles  from  Barletta  and  encamped 
there,  between  Andria  and  Corato.  A  monument 
marks  the  spot  to-day.  For  the  Italians,  Prospero 
Colonna  appeared  as  second ;  the  French  chose  for 
theirs  the  most  honourable  knight  of  any  age,  the 
famous  Bayard ;  the  judges  marked  out  the  ground, 
and  the  tournament  began.  It  was  a  windy  day  and 
the  gale  was  in  the  Italians'  favour,  as  the  parties  rode 
at  each  other,  first  at  a  foot  pace  and  then  at  a  trot. 
Zurita  says  that  they  hardly  broke  into  a  canter  as  they 
met;  nevertheless,  all  the  lances  were  broken  on  both 


352  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

sides,  but  most  of  the  French  knights  dropped  the 
stumps  of  theirs.  Not  a  horse  was  killed,  not  a  knight 
was  thrown,  and  they  at  once  attacked  each  other  with 
short  arms,  some  using  their  axes,  and  some  their 
swords,  as  they  pleased.  The  French  defended  them- 
selves stoutly,  but  the  Italians  fought  so  valiantly  and 
with  such  perfect  agreement  among  themselves,  that 
in  the  space  of  one  hour  —  not  six,  as  some  have  said, 
—  the  French  were  driven  across  the  line  and  therefore 
forced  to  surrender.  One  of  their  knights  lay  dead 
on  the  field,  and  one  was  severely  wounded,  but  only 
one  of  the  Italians  was  slightly  hurt.  The  French 
champions  were  led  back  to  Barletta  by  their  victors 
with  huge  rejoicings,  and  the  thirteen  Italians  supped 
at  Gonzalvo  de  Cordova's  own  table. 

The  moral  effect  of  such  a  victory  was  great,  and 
the  success  was  followed  shortly  by  a  more  substantial 
one  in  the  great  battle  of  Cerignola,  where  the  Duke 
of  Nemours  died  of  his  wounds ;  and  in  the  following 
year  the  last  of  the  French  were  driven  to  take  shelter 
in  Gaeta,  which  more  than  once,  and  even  in  1860,  was 
the  last  refuge  of  those  who  had  held  Naples.  The 
unfortunate  King  Frederick  died  of  grief,  and  Ferdi- 
nand the  Catholic  was  master  of  all  southern  Italy. 

The  early  death  of  his  only  son  had  been  regarded 
as  a  calamity  by  almost  all  civilized  nations ;  but,  if  the 
young  prince  had  lived,  the  greatest  of  all  Spanish 
monarchs,  Charles  the  Fifth,  would  never  have  reigned. 


In  Later  Times  353 

He  was  Ferdinand's  grandson  by  Joan  the  Mad,  whose 
handsome  husband,  the  heir  of  the  Empire,  died  at  the 
age  of  twenty-eight  from  drinking  too  much  iced  water 
after  a  game  at  ball,  an  excess  to  which  Aprile 
gives  the  name  of  intemperance.  The  infant  Charles, 
therefore,  became  the  heir  of  the  Empire  as  well  as  of 
Spain,  the  Low  Countries,  Southern  Italy,  and  Sicily, 
besides  all  that  had  been  discovered  of  America,  and 
he  was  by  far  the  greatest  sovereign  in  the  world.  I 
may  appropriately  close  this  brief  sketch  of  the  south- 
ern successions  by  giving  some  account  of  the  monarch 
whose  strong  hand  has  left  its  indelible  impress  upon 
Sicily  and  the  mainland. 

Charles  was  six  years  old  when  his  father  died,  and 
his  mother,  it  is  said,  was  so  distracted  by  her  grief 
that  she  never  recovered,  but  buried  herself  in  the  con- 
vent of  Tordesillas,  entirely  shutting  herself  off  from  all 
human  intercourse ;  and  there  she  lived  to  old  age,  and 
died  when  the  great  emperor  was  in  his  fifty-sixth  year. 
He  was  sixteen  at  the  death  of  his  grandfather  Ferdi- 
nand, and  his  vast  dominions  were  practically  governed 
and  held  for  him  by  the  inexorable  regent,  Cardinal 
Ximenes,  during  the  few  months  the  latter  still  had 
to  live ;  before  long  the  young  king  stood  alone  and 
fought  his  own  battles. 

Some  idea  of  the  unsafe  condition  of  Italy  during  that 
time  may  be  formed  from  the  fact  that,  in  1516,  Pope 
Leo  the  Tenth  was  very  nearly  carried  off  a  prisoner  by 

VOL.   II  2  A 


354  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

Barbary  pirates  while  spending  a  few  days  at  Civita 
Lavinia,  near  Albano.  The  famous  pirate  Barbarossa, 
whom  the  Italian  peasants  still  confound  with  the  Em- 
peror Frederick  the  First,  was  master  of  the  seas  and 
made  raids  upon  the  southern  coast  at  his  pleasure. 
Deserted  villages,  still  standing  in  a  maze  of  thorns  and 
creepers,  bear  witness  to  his  deeds,  while  the  strong 
beacon  towers  built  all  round  the  coast,  each  in  sight  of 
the  next,  show  what  Charles  the  Fifth  did  to  ward  off 
such  attacks.  When  he  came  to  the  throne,  Italy  was 
distracted  by  wars  within  and  threatened  by  whole  fleets 
of  corsairs ;  the  young  Francis  the  First  of  France,  mad 
with  ambition  and  self-esteem,  had  inwardly  resolved  to 
take  the  south  for  himself,  and  Henry  the  Eighth  of 
England  was  ready  for  any  quarrel,  with  the  Holy  See, 
with  France,  or  with  the  Empire,  while  his  minister 
Wolsey  laboured  to  keep  the  peace.  There  was  room 
for  a  great  king  in  such  times,  and  Charles  the  Fifth 
won  the  battle  of  Miihlberg  and  reached  the  climax  of 
his  career  after  a  reign  of  thirty-one  years,  in  the  very 
year  in  which  Francis  the  First  and  Henry  the  Eighth 
breathed  their  last.  He  began  life  with  a  conception  of 
his  duties  as  emperor  and  his  rights  as  king  which  be- 
longed to  the  middle  ages  rather  than  to  the  Renas- 
cence; he  considered  that,  while  the  seat  of  the  Empire 
was  in  Germany,  the  reason  for  its  existence  lay  in 
Italy,  and  that,  as  the  arbiter  and  defender  of  the 
Christian  faith,  he  must  hold  the  position  and  wield 


In  Later  Times  355 

the  sceptre  which  had  been  Charlemagne's.  The 
vastness  of  his  possessions  was  a  foundation  upon 
which  he  had  some  right  to  build  great  hopes  of 
such  a  universal  monarchy.  He  was  but  twenty  years 
of  age  when  he  was  crowned  emperor  at  Aix,  and 
he  chose  for  his  motto  the  words  '  Plus  oultre,'  which 
may  be  interpreted  to  mean  that  he  began  life  with  the 
intention  of  extending  his  dominions,  his  power,  and  his 
influence  until  the  end.  The  principal  adversary  whom 
he  found  in  his  way  was  Francis  the  First,  whose 
personal  courage  led  him  to  believe  that  he  could  accom- 
plish anything,  while  his  unsuspicious  vanity  made  him 
fancy  that  all  men  were  his  friends  who  were  not  his 
open  enemies.  Francis  was  sure  of  the  support  of  Pope 
Leo  the  Tenth  and  of  Henry  the  Eighth ;  the  former, 
says  the  modern  French  historian,  M.  H.  Gaillard,  joined 
forces  with  the  imperial  army,  united  Parma  and  Pia- 
cenza  with  the  States  of  the  Church,  and  died  of  his  joy 
over  the  achievement.  Henry  the  Eighth  lent  Francis 
nothing  but  the  offer  of  an  arbitration,  and  in  the  follow- 
ing year  allied  himself  with  the  emperor  in  an  attack 
upon  Picardy  and  Guyenne.  To  make  matters  worse, 
Charles,  the  Constable  of  Bourbon,  betrayed  Francis  and 
treated  with  Henry  the  Eighth  to  divide  France  with 
the  latter.  The  plot  was  betrayed  to  the  king,  but 
his  position  was  already  almost  desperate,  and,  though 
he  repulsed  the  English  in  Picardy,  and  their  vanguard 
only  eleven  leagues  from  Paris,  and  although  he  repelled 


356  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

the  attack  of  the  Spaniards  in  Navarre,  he  was  obliged 
to  retreat  on  the  Italian  side  of  his  dominions  with  the 
loss  of  the  incomparable  Chevalier  Bayard,  and  was  un- 
able to  check  the  constable's  career.  The  latter  renewed 
and  strengthened  his  relations  with  Henry  the  Eighth,  and 
besieged  Marseilles,  whence  he  was  driven  with  difficulty 
by  the  emperor's  general,  the  Marquis  of  Pescara,  the 
husband  of  the  celebrated  Vittoria  Colonna  ;  but  it  was 
impossible  to  keep  the  imperial  army  together  in  the  face 
of  the  hostile  population,  and  Francis  again  penetrated 
into  Italy  to  renew  his  efforts  at  conquest.  Charles  the 
Fifth,  however,  was  not  so  easily  beaten  ;  the  remnants 
of  his  army  took  possession  of  Pavia  and  other  strong 
places,  while  his  captains  reorganized  their  men.  In  the 
decisive  and  famous  battle  of  Pavia  the  reckless  young 
king  was  completely  defeated  and  taken  prisoner,  and 
was  carried  away  to  a  memorable  captivity  in  Madrid, 
where  Charles  at  first  refused  to  see  him,  and  shut  him  up 
in  a  dismal  prison,  in  which  there  was  but  one  window. 
The  position  hitherto  occupied  by  France  in  European 
politics  was  gone,  but  the  emperor  had  not  yet  won  Italy. 
The  French,  in  alliance  with  the  Venetians  under  the 
command  of  Andrea  Doria,  commanded  the  Mediterra- 
nean, and  the  new  pope,  Clement  the  Seventh,  taking  the 
side  of  France,  let  loose  upon  Italy  the  '  Black  Bands  ' 
of  Giovanni  de'  Medici.  But  the  emperor  was  always 
slow  in  his  movements,  and  after  his  liberation  from 
Madrid  Francis  was  less  ardent  for  fight.  The  situation, 


In  Later  Times  357 

which  might  have  lasted  a  long  time,  was  unexpectedly 
changed  by  the  temerity  of  the  constable.  With  no 
hope  of  a  reconciliation  with  Francis,  and  well  knowing 
that  he  could  not  expect  a  crown  from  Charles  the  Fifth, 
he  resolved  to  carve  out  a  kingdom  for  himself,  allied 
himself  with  the  Lutheran  captain,  Froudsberg,  and  after 
seizing  Milan  marched  southwards  upon  Rome.  He  was 
killed  in  the  assault  upon  the  city,  but  his  troops  avenged 
his  death  in  the  fearful  sack  of  Rome,  of  which  the 
whole  blame  was  afterwards  laid  upon  Charles  the  Fifth. 
Roused  at  last,  the  emperor  put  forth  all  his  strength. 
Before  long  the  French  were  completely  driven  out  of 
Italy,  Charles  the  Fifth  was  crowned  at  Bologna  by  the 

* 

Pope  who  had  lately  been  his  enemy,  and  the  latter  was 
rewarded  by  the  reestablishment  of  his  kindred,  the  Med- 
ici, in  Florence.  The  emperor  now  turned  against  the 
Turks  in  a  war  which  was  dignified  by  the  name  of  a 
crusade,  a  Spanish  army  landed  at  Goletta,  and  Tunis 
opened  its  gates  after  a  month's  siege.  Francis  natu- 
rally took  advantage  of  this  war  to  renew  his  attack  upon 
Italy,  and  easily  took  possession  of  Piedmont ;  further- 
more, he  announced  his  intention  of  conquering  Flan- 
ders. By  the  treaty  of  Cambrai  he  had  lost  the  suzerainty 
of  the  latter  province,  but  he  now  had  the  assurance 
to  summon  '  Charles  of  Austria,  his  vassal,'  to  appear 
before  him  in  Parliament,  and  on  the  emperor's  non- 
appearance  solemnly  confiscated  his  territories  for 
treason. 


358  The   Rulers  of  the  South 

The  conquest  of  Tunis  had  produced  few  results ; 
Barbarossa  and  his  pirate  squadrons  were  still  the 
terror  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  Francis  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  ally  himself  with  an  infidel  corsair  in  the  hope 
of  at  last  gaming  some  permanent  advantage  against 
the  emperor.  At  the  same  time  Francis  had  some 
success  in  Italy.  Henry  the  Eighth,  however,  and  the 
Protestant  princes  of  Europe  allied  themselves  with 
Charles  against  a  fellow-sovereign  who  had  called 
Moslems  to  his  aid.  Henry  the  Eighth  besieged  Bou- 
logne and  Montreuil,  the  emperor  himself  marched 
across  France,  and  the  end  was  a  treaty  which  the 
French  king  might  look  upon  as  a  reconciliation,  but 
which  finally  established  the  supremacy  of  Charles. 
Henry  had  taken  Boulogne,  for  which  he  demanded  a 
large  ransom ;  Francis  was  forced  to  sign  a  treaty,  or 
reconciliation,  with  him  also,  and  died  soon  afterwards, 
worn  out  by  the  fatigues,  emotions,  and  disappointments 
of  his  unhappy  career. 

This,  in  a  few  words  and  so  far  as  the  possession  of 
Italy  is  concerned,  is  the  history  of  the  memorable 
struggle  between  Charles  the  Fifth  and  Francis  the 
First  which  contributed  so  large  an  element  to  the 
general  disturbance  of  Europe  at  that  time.  Through- 
out it  all,  we  see  the  great  emperor,  always  calm  and 
self-reliant,  delaying  rather  than  hesitating,  and  always 
examining  his  own  policy  beforehand  with  cool  judg- 
ment, never  surprised,  never  at  a  loss,  never  swerving 


HEAD   OF  A   MODERN   SICILIAN.   SHOWING 
SARACEN  TYPE 


35$  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

The  conquest  of  Tunis  had  produced  feu 
Barbarossa  and  his  pirate  squadrons  were  still  the 
terror  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  Francis  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  ally  himself  with  an  infidel  corsair  in  the  hope 
of  at  last  gaining  some  permanent  advantage  against 
the  emperor.  At  the  same  time  Francis  had  some 
sXiccess  in  Italy.  Henry  the  Eighth,  however,  and  the 
Protestant  princes  of  Europe  allied  themselves  with 
Charles'  against  a  fellow-sovereign  who  had  called 
Moslems  to  his  aid.  Henry  the  Eighth  besieged  Bou- 
logne and  Montreuil,  the  emperor  himself  marched 
acros-.  a  treaty  which  the 

,  hut 

of    Charles. 

nanded  a 

yf  or 

lerwcirds, 

worn  out  >intments 

of  his  unha; 

This,  in  a  few  word-  far  as  the  possession  of 

Italy  is  concerned,  is  the  history  of  the  memorable 
struggle  between  Charles  the  Fifth  and  Francis  the 
First  which  contributed  so  large  an  element  to  the 
general  disturbance  of  Europe  at  that  time.  Through- 
out it  all,  we  see  the  great  emperor,'  always  calm  and 
self-reliant,  delaying  rather  than  hesitating,  and  al 
examining  his  own  policy  beforehand  with  cool  judg- 
ment^ never  surprised,  never  at  a  loss,  never  swerving 


.wAUioia  HflaaoM  A  HO 

3SYT   M33A*A3 


I 


In  Later  Times  359 

from  his  original  conception  of  the  Holy  Roman 
Empire,  moderate  in  victory,  patient  under  defeat, 
and  in  almost  every  way  the  model  that  a  strong  sover- 
eign should  imitate.  He  found  the  south  distracted 
by  parties,  riddled  by  conspiracies,  and  disturbed  by 
popular  revolutions.  When  he  came  to  the  throne 
Naples  and  Sicily  were  looked  upon  by  more  than  one 
sovereign  of  Europe  as  a  possible  prey,  to  be  fought 
for  on  the  mere  chance  of  a  conquest.  When  he  died 
they  were  the  possessions  of  the  house  of  Austria,  and 
they  remained  so  even  when  the  succession  to  the 
crown  of  Spain  became  an  object  of  contention  on 
the  failure  of  the  direct  line  in  1700,  and  when  thirty 
years  later  the  Bourbons  of  Spain  drove  out  their 
Austrian  cousins.  It  is  as  impossible  to  imagine 
Sicily  without  Charles  the  Fifth,  as  it  is  to  think  of 
it  without  King  Roger,  and  in  the  present  condition 
of  the  country  the  monuments  of  the  Austrian  far  out- 
number those  left  by  the  Norman.  From  thousands 
of  churches,  castles,  and  palaces  all  over  the  country 
the  huge  stone  shield  that  bears  the  quartered  arms 
of  Spain  and  Austria,  with  the  imperial  eagle,  pro- 
claims the  lordship  of  Charles's  successors ;  and  there 
is  perhaps  not  in  all  Sicily  one  church  that  is  not  the 
last  resting-place  of  some  great  Spanish  noble.  From 
Charles's  time  the  architecture  of  the  south  lost  all  its 
independence  and  originality,  and  the  art  of  the  Renas- 
cence, after  overspreading  the  nobler  works  of  the 


360  The   Rulers  of  the  South 

Norman  and  the  Saracen,  brought  in  its  train  the 
barbaric  horrors  of  the  late  '  Barocco.'  The  exquisite 
church  in  which  Peter  of  Aragon  was  elected  by  the 
Sicilian  barons  was  lined  with  gaudy  panels  of  coloured 
marbles,  plastered  with  hideous  scrolls,  and  adorned 
with  obese  cherubs  that  are  not  indecent  only  because 
they  are  impossible.  The  noble  cathedral  was  de- 
graded by  the  superimposition  of  an  Italian  dome,  as 
inappropriate  to  its  architecture  as  a  Chinese  pagoda 
upon  Mount  Sinai,  and  few  other  buildings  of  beauty 
escaped  the  triumphant  and  destroying  march  of  cor- 
rupted taste.  It  is  only  in  very  recent  times  that 
some  individuals  have  tried  to  reconstruct  on  a  smaller 
scale  the  dwellings  of  the  Saracen-Norman  times,  and 
the  result  is  so  pleasing  as  to  make  one  wish  that  the 
Italians  of  the  mainland  would  follow  the  example  set 
by  Sicilians,  instead  of  constantly  inventing  new  shapes 
of  terror. 

This  same  debasement  of  style  in  the  south  is  wit- 
ness, however,  to  the  aggrandizement  of  Spain  under 
Charles's  successors.  The  Renascence  was  sponta- 
neous in  Florence  and  natural  in  Rome,  but  in  the 
south  it  was  imposed  by  force.  Venice,  Lombardy, 
Tuscany,  and  Rome  never  submitted  so  long  to  entirely 
foreign  domination  as  Naples  and  Sicily  did,  and  have 
therefore  retained  something  distinctly  individual  in 
their  art.  It  is  unjust  to  say  that  the  south  submitted 
because  it  was  weaker,  morally  and  physically,  than  the 


In  Later  Times  361 

north  ;  the  south  was  better  worth  winning  and  holding, 
and  greater  armies  came  against  it,  led  by  greater  men, 
from  Augustus  to  Roger  the  Great  Count,  and  from 
Henry  the  Sixth  to  Gonzalvo  de  Cordova.  While  the 
north  was  divided  into  many  small  states,  the  south  was 
held  together  in  a  single  kingdom  by  the  strong  hands 
of  Spanish  kings,  and  the  vastness  of  the  Spanish 
domination  made  revolt  seem  impossible.  Even  when 
the  south  was  separated  from  Spain,  the  Spanish 
Bourbons  were  its  kings,  and  the  people  still  felt  that 
in  some  way  they  belonged  to  the  greater  kingdom 
of  the  West,  while  their  rulers  ruled  them  in  the  same 
old  way,  and  while  the  court  still  derived  its  elaborate 
manners,  its  corrupt  customs,  and  its  execrable  taste 
from  the  mouldering  remnants  of  what  Charles  the 
Fifth  had  made. 

It  is  all  changed  now,  and  the  new  influence  is 
almost  wholly  commercial;  but  in  Sicily  the  seed  of 
a  civilization  has  remained  which  may  not  be  blasted 
by  progress.  There  are'  men  who  are  filled  with  a 
tender  and  discerning  love  for  the  beautiful  that  lies  so 
near  the  surface,  and  their  counsels  are  often  followed ; 
the  frightful  incrustations  of  Barocco  ornament  are 
being  carefully  removed  from  the  Martorana,  the  noble 
Norman  altar  rail  and  fragments  of  mosaic  have  been 
unearthed  from  the  cellars  where  they  lay  for  centuries 
and  have  been  carefully  restored,  and  the  original 
church  once  more  appears  in  its  true  beauty.  In  the 


362  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

Palazzo  del  Tribunal!,  whence  Blanche  of  Navarre 
escaped  from  Cabrera  on  that  winter's  night  long  ago, 
windows  of  matchless  grace  have  been  found  and  once 
more  opened,  the  light  of  day  again  falls  through  long- 
hidden  traceries  of  stone,  and  the  grand  carved  ceilings, 
rich  with  all  the  heraldry  of  knightly  times,  have  been 
again  uncovered.  No  modern  hand  has  rudely  changed 
the  outline  of  the  Zisa  palace,  and  the  worst  of  the 
Spanish  ornaments  have  been  effaced  in  the  great  hall 
of  the  bath,  where  the  water  still  fills  the  little  tanks 
in  the  marble  floor.  Everywhere  throughout  Sicily  the 
artistic  feeling  is  conservative  and  good,  while  on  the 
mainland  things  go  from  bad  to  worse ;  and  it  is  only 
here  and  there,  as  at  Ravello,  the  lovely  Moorish  castle 
above  Amalfi,  that  an  alien  hand  has  arrested  decay 
and  warded  off  improvement.  In  the  later  devel- 
opment of  things,  the  mainland  has  not  yet  lost  its 
Spanish  character ;  but  Sicily's  native  strength  is  begin- 
ning to  show  itself  again,  and  if  there  is  a  resurrection 
in  store  for  Italian  architecture  and  Italian  art,  I  ven- 
ture to  say  that  it  will  begin  in  Palermo  or  some 
Sicilian  city,  and  not  in  Florence,  which  has  become 
a  manufactory  of  pretty  facsimiles,  nor  in  Rome,  where 
art  is  given  over  to  foreigners  and  architecture  to  con- 
tractors ;  and  if  any  such  renewal  of  life  is  to  come,  I 
think  it  will  proceed  from  Saracen  or  Norman  begin- 
nings, and  not  from  anything  left  by  Charles  the  Fifth 
and  the  Spanish  kings. 


FIRST  COURT  OF  THE   MUSEUM.    PALERMO 


362  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

.    Tribunal!,  whence    Blanche,  of    Navar 
escaped  from  Cabrera  on  that  winter's  night  long  ar 
matchless  grace  have  been  found  and  once 
i,  the  light  of  day  again  falls  througn  long- 
r-aceries  of  stone,  and  the  grand  carved  ceilin 
h  all  the  heraldry  of  knightly  times,  have  been 
LI  uncovered.     No  modern  hand  has  rudely  changed 
outline  of  the  Zisa  palace,  and   the    worst  of   the 
nish  ornaments  have  been  effaced  in  the  great  hall 
of  the  bath,  where  the  water  still  fills  the  little  tanks 
in  the  marble  floor.     Everywhere  throughout  Sicily  the 
artistic  feeling  is  conservative  and  good,  while  on  the 
mainland  things  go  from  bad  t         i        ;  and  it  is  only 
here  and  th>  castle 

ay 
and 

opment    of    thin 
Spanish  chara  Sici 

ning  to  show  itself  a  i>.i  it  there  is  a  resurrection 

in  store  for  Italian  architecture  and  Italian  art,  I  ven- 
ture  to  say'  that  it  will  begin  in  Palermo  or  some 
Sicilian  city,  and  not  in  Florence,  which  has  become 
a  manufactory  of  pretty  facsimiles,  nor  in  Rome,  where 
art  is  given  over  to  foreigners  and  architecture  to  con- 
lors;  and  if  any  such  renewal  of  life  is-  to  come,  I 
think  it  will  proceed  from  Saracen  or,  Norman  begin- 
nings, and  not  from  anything  left  by  Charles -the  Fifth 
and  the  Spanish  kings. 

.MuaauM  anr  ^o  THUOO 


The  Mafia  363 

Conclusion :    The  Mafia 

THE  world  at  large  knows  little  of  modern  Sicily, 
but  that  little  generally  includes  a  word  of  recent  origin 
which  is  closely  associated  with  the  island  in  the  pub- 
lic mind,  but  to  which  no  meaning  is  attached  that  is 
even  approximately  true.  The  word  is  '  Mafia.'  There  is 
another  which  belongs  to  Naples,  '  Camorra,'  and  which 
is  better  understood  because  it  is  more  easily  explained, 
and  because  the  thing  it  means  is  more  direct  in  its 
results.  Both  words  are  of  doubtful  origin.  Camorra 
means  an  association  of  persons,  having  for  its  object 
an  illicit  control  of  any  lawful  or  unlawful  trade, 
obtained  by  forcibly  excluding  other  people  from  taking 
part  in  it.  In  the  broad  sense  it  means  the  vast  organ- 
ization of  thieves,  high  and  low,  by  which  daily  life  in 
Naples  is  controlled,  by  which  the  city  is  swayed  in 
political  matters,  and  with  the  existence  of  which  the 
Italian  government  is  obliged  to  reckon.  The  social 
effects  of  the  Camorra  do  not  extend  much  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  city ;  politically,  the  whole  province  is 
affected  by  it.  In  private  life,  it  means  that  all  who 
have  acted  in  such  a  way  as  to  be  considered  members 
of  the  Camorra  are  quite  safe  from  depredation,  so 
that  if  anything  is  stolen  from  them  by  mistake  it  is  at 
once  returned ;  it  means  also  that  whoever  is  willing  to 
help  the  Camorra  in  its  ends  will  be  helped  by  it.  It 
has  no  regular  organization,  no  place  of  meeting,  no 


364  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

elected  officers ;  it  is  everywhere  and  it  is  nowhere  ; 
its  members  recognize  each  other  by  their  conduct 
rather  than  by  signs  or  words,  and  the  commands  of 
its  chiefs  are  given  verbally  and  transmitted  in  like 
manner.  It  might  be  described  as  a  society  for  pre- 
serving a  monopoly  in  stealing  and  illicit  trades,  were 
it  not  that  many  apparently  respectable  officials,  men 
of  business,  and  tradespeople  protect  it,  or  are  under  its 
protection.  So  far  as  it  can  be  said  to  be  organized  at 
all,  it  manages  itself  by  a  sort  of  natural  hierarchy  and 
affiliation ;  the  officers  of  each  grade  are  self-created, 

and  depend  on  force  of  character  for  the  power  they 

» 
exercise.     It  might  be  called  a  system  of  bullying,  in 

which  every  ringleader  who  can  impose  himself  upon 
his  companions  is  in  turn  forcibly  controlled  by  one  of 
higher  standing  than  himself,  who  again  is  subject 
to  others,  and  so  on,  from  the  street  boy  who  gets  a 
living  by  selling  the  stumps  of  cigars,  to  the  high 
official  and  perhaps  to  the  member  of  Parliament. 
The  real  end  and  object  of  the  Camorra  is,  I  think, 
always  profit,  gained  by  any  means,  good  or  bad.  It 
constrains  all  pickpockets,  thieves,  and  burglars  in  the 
city  to  render  an  account  of  their  robberies  to  their 
superiors,  on  pain  of  being  at  once  handed  over  to 
justice ;  and  there  is  no  city  in  the  world  in  which 
it  is  so  easy  to  recover  stolen  goods,  provided  that 
application  be  made  in  the  right  quarter.  A  part 
of  its  regular  practice  consists  of  robbing  all  for- 


The  Mafia  365 

eigners,  both  directly,  when  possible,  and  indirectly 
by  extortion. 

The  Mafia  differs  from  the  Camorra  in  almost  every 
respect,  and  whereas  the  latter  is  based  on  criminal 
practices,  the  former  has  its  foundation  in  lawless  prin- 
ciples. In  attempting  to  give  some  account  of  the 
power  which  dominates  a  great  part  of  Sicily  at  the 
present  time,  I  shall  follow  the  interesting  work  of 
Signor  Antonio  Cutrera,  chief  of  police  in  Palermo, 
published  in  the  present  year  1900,  and  which  may  be 
taken  as  a  thoroughly  truthful  account  of  the  present 
state  of  things  by  one  who  has  spent  years  in  a  hand-to- 
hand  fight  with  the  evil. 

Setting  aside  the  possible  ancient  origin  of  the  Mafia, 
its  present  development  seems  due  to  the  great  corrup- 
tion which  existed  under  the  Bourbons,  and  especially 
in  the  police  of  that  time,  the  consequence  of  which 
was  a  general  tendency  on  the  part  of  Sicilians  to  do 
justice  for  themselves.  One  of  the  principal  functions 
of  the  Mafia  is,  indeed,  to  decide  differences  and  dis- 
pense justice  without  appealing  or  submitting  to  the 
decision  of  a  tribunal ;  and  this  is  clearly  the  result  of 
a  condition  of  things  in  which  such  an  appeal  was 
either  useless  or  too  expensive  for  persons  of  ordinary 
means. 

Another  principal  element  is  the  Sicilian  character 
itself,  which  is  bold,  but  extremely  reticent,  and  is  deeply 
imbued  with  a  peculiar  sense  of  honour  for  which  the 


366 


The  Rulers  of  the  South 


Sicilian    language  has  a   term  of  its  own  in  the  word 
'  Omerta.'     According  to  this  code,  a  man  who  appeals 

to  the  law  against  his 
fellow-man  is  not  only 
a  fool  but  a  coward, 
and  he  who  cannot 
take  care  of  himself 
without  the  protection 
of  the  police  is  both. 
Evidently  a  profound 
contempt  for  the  law 
is  at  the  root  of  this 
principle,  and  the  law 
is  of  course  repre- 
sented in  the  eyes  of 
the  people  by  the 
police  and  the  tribu- 
nals. It  is,  therefore, 
logical  that  every  Si- 
cilian should  do  his 
utmost  to  hamper  and 
impede  the  actions  of 
both,  and  it  is  reckoned 
as  cowardly  to  betray 
an  offender  to  jus- 
tice, even  though  the 
offence  be  against  one- 

CLOISTER    OF   THE    MOORISH    CASTLE 

AT   RAVELLO,   NEAR  AMALFI  Self,      aS      it      WOllld      be 


The  Mafia  367 

not  to  avenge  an  injury  by  violence.  It  is  regarded 
as  dastardly  and  contemptible  in  a  wounded  man  to 
betray  the  name  of  his  assailant,  because  if  he  re- 
covers he  must  naturally  expect  to  take  vengeance 
himself.  A  rhymed  Sicilian  proverb  sums  up  this  prin- 
ciple, the  supposed  speaker  being  one  who  has  been 
stabbed.  '  If  I  live,  I  will  kill  thee,'  it  says ;  '  if  I  die,  I 
forgive  thee.' 

The  obligation  to  conceal  the  name  of  the  assassin  or 
other  offender  extends  to  all  those  who  chance  to  be 
witnesses  of  the  crime,  and  it  is  even  considered  to  be 
their  duty  to  hide  the  criminal  from  the  police  if  he  is 
pursued.  The  code  requires  an  innocent  man  to  go  to 
i  penal  servitudelfor  another  rather  than  betray  the  cul- 
'  prit,  and  Signor  Cutrera,  who  should  know,  if  any  one 
does,  states  that  cases  are  not  rare  in  which  Sicilians, 
though  innocent,  have  undergone  long  terms  of  impris- 
onment and  have  even  died  in  prison,  rather  than  give 
information  to  the  police.  The  Mafia  would  brand 
with  '  infamy '  a  man  who  should  do  otherwise,  and  this 
principle  makes  it  almost  impossible  to  bring  into  court 
witnesses  for  the  conviction  of  a  Mafiuso.  With  regard 
to  the  injured  person,  the  obligation  of  silence  is  the 
same,  although  the  possibility  of  vengeance  may  be 
infinitely  removed.  As  has  been  said,  the  derivation  of 
the  word  Mafia  is  unknown.  The  word  itself,  in  the 
Sicilian  dialect,  means  the  ideally  perfect,  and  a  beauti- 
ful girl,  for  instance,  would  be  called  '  Mafiusa,'  simply 


368  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

on  account  of  her  looks.  The  word  is  even  applied  by 
hawkers  to  their  wares.  It  was  first  used  in  its  present 
sense  by  the  author  of  a  famous  play,  '  I  Mafiusi  di  la 
Vicaria,'  which  was  produced  in  1863  and  ran  many 
nights,  and  which  has  been  translated  from  Sicilian 
into  Italian  and  has  been  given  all  over  Italy.  From 
that  time  the  word  was  adopted  into  the  Italian  lan- 
guage to  designate  an  uncertain  combination  of  brigan- 
dage, 'Camorra,'  and  general  criminality.  It  is  not  the 
first  time  that  a  book  or  a  play  has  given  a  name  to 
something  which  had  none,  and  which  is  ill  defined  by 
it.  In  Sicily  the  word  now  means  a  condition  pro- 
duced by  two  factors  only,  a  long  reign  of  violence  on 
the  one  hand,  and  that  mistaken  sense  of  honour  on 
the  other,  which  has  been  already  explained. 

We  next  come  to  the  consideration  of  the  results  pro- 
duced by  this  state  of  things,  and  these  of  course  vary 
according  to  the  class  to  which  the  delinquents  belong, 
from  the  lowest  upwards.  Signer  Cutrera  correctly 
describes  the  appearance  of  a  low  Mafiuso  of  Palermo. 
He  wears  his  hat  upon  the  left  side,  his  hair  smoothed 
with  plentiful  pomatum  and  one  lock  brushed  down 
upon  his  forehead,  he  walks  with  a  swinging  motion  of 
the  hips,  a  cigar  in  his  mouth,  a  heavy  knotted  stick 
in  his  hand,  and  he  is  frequently  armed  with  a  long 
knife  or  a  revolver.  He  stares  disdainfully  at  every 
man  he  meets  with  the  air  of  challenging  each  comer 
to  speak  to  him  if  he  dare.  To  any  one  who  knows 


The  Mafia  369 

Palermo,  this  type  of  the  lower  class  is  familiar.  He 
is  the  common  '  Ricottaro/  a  word  which  I  will  not 
translate,  but  which  broadly  indicates  that  the  young 
man  derives  his  means  of  support  from  some  unfor- 
tunate woman  who  is  in  his  power.  It  is  a  deplor- 
able fact  that  the  same  mode  of  existence  is  followed , 
by  young  men  of  the  middle  classes,  whose  plentiful 
leisure  hours  are  spent  in  play,  and  who  have  constituted 
themselves  the  official  '  claque '  of  the  theatres,  impos- 
ing themselves  upon  the  managers  as  a  compact  body. 
Moreover,  during  elections,  they  can  be  of  the  utmost 
assistance  to  candidates,  owing  to  their  perfect  solidarity. 
With  the  most  atrocious  vices,  they  possess  the  heredi- 
tary courage  of  the  Sicilian,  and  will  face  steel  or  bullets 
with  the  coolness  of  trained  soldiers ;  and  though  they 
will  insult  and  even  beat  their  women  when  in  the 
humour,  they  will  draw  the  knife  for  the  least  disparag- 
ing word  spoken  against  what  they  regard  as  their 
property.  The  writer  I  am  following  observes  that  a 
considerable  number  of  these  young  men  end  in  the 
dissecting  room  or  in  prison,  but  that  others  mend  their 
ways  when  they  are  thirty  years  of  age  and  turn  into 
a  higher  species  of  their  kind,  which  may  be  called  the 
real  Mafiusi. 

The  Mafia  divides  itself  everywhere  and  naturally  into 
two  parts,  the  one  existing  in  Palermo  and  the  large 
cities,  and  the  other  without  the  walls  and  through  the 
open  country. 


370  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

The  full-blown  Mafiuso  in  the  city  differs  from  the 
common  Ricottaro  in  that  he  works  secretly  and  by 
means  of  moral  pressure,  whereas  the  Ricottaro  boldly 
kills  his  enemy  or  is  killed  by  him,  without  the  least 
attempt  at  concealment.  Statistics  show  that  in  the 
city  of  Palermo,  from  1893  to  1899,  both  inclusive,  there 
have  been  eighteen  murders,  twenty-eight  attempts  at 
murder,  and  eighty-nine  stabbings,  all  the  work  of  the 
Ricottari. 

A  man's  position  in  the  proper  Mafia  is  the  result  of 
his  personal  influence,  which  derives  in  the  first  place 
from  his  reputation  as  a  man  of  so-called  honour,  and 
which  is  afterwards  increased  to  any  extent  by  force 
of  circumstances,  until  he  becomes  a  '  Capo-mafia,'  and 
one  of  the  acknowledged  chiefs.  His  prestige  is  then 
such  that  his  fellow-citizens  appeal  to  him  to  settle 
their  differences,  both  in  matters  of  business  and  interest 
and  in  questions  of  '  honour ' ;  his  house  becomes  the 
resort  of  all  those  who  have  difficulties  to  decide  or  who 
need  the  help  of  the  '  friends,'  as  the  Mafiusi  commonly 
call  each  other.  Nor  are  the  Mafiusi  the  only  persons 
who  invoke  the  help  of  the  Capo-mafia;  strangers  and 
even  foreigners  appeal  to  him,  and  as  his  prestige  is 
increased  in  proportion  to  the  gratitude  he  earns,  he 
will  take  the  greatest  possible  trouble  to  oblige  any  one 
who  comes  to  him  for  advice  or  assistance ;  and  while 
the  Mafia,  as  a  whole,  blocks  the  way  for  the  law  at 
every  step,  it  makes  itself  indispensable  to  those  who 


The  Mafia  371 

need  redress  and  despair  of  getting  it  by  legal  process. 
We  cannot  call  the  means  used  by  the  Mafia  lawful 
nor  moral,  but  the  scrupulous  exactness  with  which  a 
Capo-mafia  keeps  his  word,  and  the  general  fairness 
with  which  he  decides  the  cases  that  come  before  him, 
though  he  have  not  the  smallest  right  to  decide  them, 
inspires  great  confidence  in  his  clients  and  creates  the 
sort  of  moral  despotism  on  which  the  Mafia  depends 
for  its  existence.  Furthermore,  the  Capo-mafia  may 
be  a  lawyer,  and  a  member  of  the  municipal  or  even  of 
the  provincial  council,  or  a  deputy,  or  a  cabinet  minister, 
rising  to  the  moral  control  of  the  whole  society  simply 
by  his  prestige  and  predominant  will,  but  never  by  any 
sort  of  election  or  machinery,  since  the  Mafia  has  none. 
Long  before  that  he  has  become  a  rich  man,  because 
it  would  be  practically  impossible  to  make  a  contract  for 
any  public  work,  or  to  carry  it  out,  without  his  inter- 
vention. Thus  the  vast  system  of  patronage  narrows 
naturally  to  a  few  chief  patrons,  who  are  of  course  in- 
timately associated  and  who  sometimes  obey  one  head. 
The  Mafia  disposes  of  men  of  all  conditions  and  all 
professions,  and  they  are  bound  to  it  by  no  promises 
of  secrecy  nor  oaths  of  obedience,  but  by  interest  and 
necessity  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  strong  Sicilian  sense 
of  '  honour '  on  the  other ;  they  are  protected  by  it,  for 
it  can  annihilate  its  isolated  enemies,  and  even  in  crim- 
inal cases  it  is  almost  impossible  to  convict  a  Mafiuso, 
in  the  total  absence  of  witnesses  against  him,  so  that  a 


372 


The  Rulers  of  the  South 


wise  judge  will  generally  adjourn  such  a  case  until  he 
can  find  some  excuse  for  sending  it  to  be  tried  in  a 
court  on  the  mainland. 


OLD    HOUSES   AT   PIZZO,    CALABRIA,    WHERE    MURAT,    KING   OF    NAPLES, 
WAS    EXECUTED    IN    1815 

The  Mafia  acknowledges  no  allegiance  to  any  polit- 
ical party,  but  when  it  nominates  a  candidate  his 
election  is  generally  a  foregone  conclusion,  and  the 
successful  contestant  is  greeted  by  a  popular  ovation. 


The  Mafia  373 

It  is  hard  to  see  how  a  constitutional  government  could 
successfully  oppose  such  a  system.  Thoughtful  per- 
sons will  see  what  Signer  Cutrera  has  not  seen,  namely, 
that  it  is  a  complete  and  highly  efficient  form  of 
self-government,  which  exists,  and  will  continue  to  exist, 
in  defiance  of  the  constitutional  monarchy  under  which 
it  is  supposed  to  live.  An  ancient  tyrant  would  have 
destroyed  it  by  the  brutal  process  of  massacring  half 
the  population  and  transplanting  the  rest  to  the  main- 
land, but  no  civilized  method  of  producing  the  same 
result  seems  to  have  occurred  to  statesmen.  The 
Bourbons  employed  the  Mafia  to  keep  order,  the 
present  government  tolerates  it  because  it  cannot 
be  crushed ;  when  the  Mafia  joined  Garibaldi,  the 
Bourbons  fell,  and  it  remains  to  be  seen  what  will 
happen  in  the  south  when  the  Mafia  turns  against 
the  monarchy  it  has  called  in.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that 
such  a  catastrophe  is  far  removed  from  present  possi- 
bility, and  it  is  at  least  a  somewhat  reassuring  fact 
that  the  Mafia  is  the  very  reverse  of  anarchic,  or  even 
socialistic ;  it  is,  indeed,  one  of  the  most  highly  con- 
servative systems  in  the  world. 

Its  tyranny  is  more  outwardly  visible  in  the  coun- 
try, and  particularly  in  the  rich  lands  that  surround 
Palermo,  than  in  Palermo  itself,  or  in  the  other  cities 
most  infected  by  it.  One  reason  of  this  is  the  great 
development  in  the  cultivation  of  oranges  and  lemons 
during  this  century.  The  crops  are  relatively  very 


374  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

valuable,  and  are  especially  tempting  to  thieves  because 
immediately  marketable  and  easily  carried  off;  the 
lands  are  cut  up  into  innumerable  small  holdings, 
and,  without  patrolling  every  orange  grove  with  soldiers, 
which  is  impossible,  the  authorities  could  not  possibly 
prevent  the  depredations  of  the  fruit-stealers.  The 
Mafia  affords  all  who  appeal  to  it  the  most  thorough 
protection,  and  its  despotism  over  the  orange-growing 
regions  is  absolute ;  for,  in  return  for  such  great 
advantages,  landholders,  whether  owners  or  tenants, 
are  only  too  glad,  to  serve  it  at  need  and  to  abstain 
from  all  recourse  to  law. 

In  the  first  place,  every  landholder  is  obliged  to 
maintain  a  '  guardiano '  or  watchman,  in  addition  to 
the  men  he  employs  upon  his  land.  There  are,  there- 
fore, several  thousands  of  these  watchmen  in  the  orange 
groves  of  the  Golden  Shell  alone,  and  they  are  without 
exception  Mafiusi,  since  they  have  the  monopoly  of 
their  business  and  can  altogether  prevent  the  employ- 
ment of  strangers  in  their  occupation.  The  landholder 
who  attempts  to  oppose  the  monopoly  will  lose  his 
whole  crop  in  a  night,  and,  if  he  persists,  his  life  is 
not  worth  a  year's  purchase.  Among  the  watchmen 
and  their  employers,  who  are  often  bound  to  them  by 
the  strongest  ties  of  friendship  as  well  «.s  of  interest, 
there  are  always  some  whose  influence  controls  the 
rest,  men  who  have  killed  their  man  in  a  question  of 
'  honour '  and  who  have  shown  themselves  on  many 


The  Mafia  375 

occasions  to  be  thorough  Mafiusi.  They  therefore 
become  the  Capi-mafia  of  the  district,  and  they  are 
always  in  communication  with  the  Capi-mafia  of  the 
city,  and  thereby  affiliated  to  the  great  system  of 
patronage.  All  differences  which  the  Capo-mafia  in 
the  country  is  not  competent  to  decide  are  thus  re- 
ferred to  the  patron  in  the  city,  from  whose  decision 
there  is  no  appeal.  Any  one,  whether  a  Mafiuso  or 
not,  who  refuses  to  obey  that  verdict,  is  killed  without 
mercy  and  generally  without  delay,  unless  he  can 
escape  from  the  country  in  time.  The  shot  is  fired 
from  behind  a  wall,  or  in  a  shady  grove  at  dusk,  and 
in  the  total  absence  of  witnesses  the  most  scrupulous 
inquiry  very  rarely  even  leads  to  an  arrest,  and  never 
to  a  conviction.  It  is  not  a  fight,  but  an  execution, 
approved  by  all  the  thousands  of  landholders  and  their 
watchmen,  who  manage  their  affairs  and  govern  them- 
selves in  this  way.  It  may  be  that  the  Capo-mafia's 
decision  was  perfectly  fair;  in  any  case  the  man  knew 
what  he  risked  in  disobeying  it,  and  his  friends  are  not 
surprised  at  his  death,  nor  do  they  seek  to  avenge  it. 
On  the  rare  occasions  when  a  Mafiuso  is  arrested, 
his  friends  and  relatives  appeal  to  their  Capo-mafia 
in  Palermo,  and  he  at  once  institutes  a  most  scrupulous 
inquiry  into  the  man's  antecedents.  If  it  is  found  that 
the  prisoner  has  throughout  his  life  strictly  obeyed  the 
principles  and  the  commands  of  the  society,  its  vast 
machinery  is  instantly  set  in  motion  to  secure  his 


376  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

release  or  acquittal,  money  is  spent  unsparingly,  though 
the  accused  be  penniless,  scores  and  sometimes  hun- 
dreds of  witnesses  are  suborned,  the  most  eminent  law- 
yers are  secured  for  the  defence,  and  the  strongest 
arguments  appear  in  the  man's  favour  in  the  most 
accredited  newspapers.  The  man  is  of  course  proved 
innocent,  and  the  verdict  is  received  with  a  chorus  of 
popular  approbation.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
inquiry  shows  that  the  man  has  once  failed  in  his 
duties  as  a  Mafiuso,  the  Capo-mafia  refuses  all  help, 
not  a  witness  will  dare  to  appear  in  his  favour,  and 
he  is  dealt  with  by  the  law  without  opposition.  A 
stranger  might  think  that  the  law  has  triumphed  in 
such  a  case,  but  it  has  not;  it  has  executed  a  verdict 
already  given  by  the  Mafia. 

The  Mafia  in  the  country  is  more  completely  organ- 
ized than  that  of  the  city,  which  is  natural  where  a  large 
body  of  men  are  employed  in  the  same  business,  as 
watchmen  of  the  fruit  crops.  The  country  Capo-mafia 
has  the  privilege  of  disposing  of  all  the  watchmen's 
places  in  his  district,  the  landholders  or  tenants  pay 
him  for  his  patronage,  they  accept  the  watchmen  he 
gives  them,  and  the  terror  of  his  name  is  a  sufficient 
surety  of  the  safety  of  their  oranges.  If  they  were 
robbed,  his  reputation  would  be  endangered  ;  if  some 
inexperienced  thief  is  foolish  enough  to  attempt  it,  he 
is  certain  to  be  caught  and  severely  beaten. 

It  is  the  business  of  the  country  Capo-mafia  to  make 


The  Mafia 


377 


demands  upon  rich  landholders  for  sums  of  money, 
when  funds  are  needed  by  the  Mafiusi  of  his  district, 
and  here  lies  the  connecting  link  between  the  more  or 
less  innocuous  Mafia  and  the  brigandage  which  is  the 
curse  of  Sicily.  A  Mafiuso,  great  or  small,  pays  at 


CASTLE  AT   PIZZO,    WITH   THE   WINDOW   OF   MURAT's   PRISON 

once  what  is  demanded  of  him  for  the  common  good ; 
but  there  are  many  large  landholders  in  the  country 
who  believe  themselves  strong  enough  to  be  indepen- 
dent of  the  Mafia,  protecting  their  crops  from  thieves 
with  a  small  force  of  armed  men,  and  maintaining  con- 
stant relations  with  the  government's  force  of  carbineers. 


378  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

Two  hundred  and  nineteen  letters  demanding  money 
have  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  police  of  Palermo 
within  seven  years.  Signer  Cutrera  publishes  some 
of  these  in  his  valuable  work.  Several  are  dated, 
and  most  of  them  begin  '  Dear  Sir,'  or  '  Dear  Friend,' 
while  they  all  conclude  by  threatening  the  life  of 
the  person  addressed,  and  often  the  lives  of  all  his 
family.  The  place  to  which  the  money,  sometimes 
as  much  as  ten  thousand  francs,  is  to  be  taken  is 
always  indicated  with  extreme  clearness,  and  in  several 
cases,  the  name  of  the  person  who  is  to  bring  it  is 
given,  and  that  person  is  generally  some  one  in  the 
victim's  employment. 

These  instances,  made  public  with  a  great  quantity 
of  corroboratory  evidence  by  a  chief  officer  of  the  Sicil- 
ian police,  should  be  enough  to  explain  the  nature  of 
the  despotism  exercised  by  the  Mafia.  From  threaten- 
ing letters  to  highway  robbery  there  is  but  a  step. 
Upon  the  road  that  leads  from  Palermo  to  Misilmeri 
there  is  a  hamlet  called  Portella  di  Mare,  which  is 
famous  for  the  number  of  attacks  made  upon  trav- 
ellers. In  the  whole  province  of  Palermo  the  statis- 
tics show  that  there  were  one  thousand  and  ninety-two 
highway  robberies  between  the  years  1893  and  1899 
inclusive.  When  it  is  considered  that  no  country  in 
the  world  is  so  thoroughly  patrolled  by  an  efficient 
and  courageous  police,  such  figures  show  the  magni- 
tude of  the  difficulty  with  which  the  authorities  have 


CASTLE-  OF  SANT   ALESSIO,    NEAR   MESSINA 


378  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

hundred  and  nineteen  letters  demanding'money 
have  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  police  of  Palermo 
11  years.  Signer  Cutrera  publisHes  some 
of  these  in  his  valuable  work.  Several  are  dated, 
and  most  of  them  begin  '  Dear  Sir,'  or  '  Dear  Friend,' 
while  they  allv  conclude  by  threatening  the  life  of 
the  person  addressed,  and  often  the  lives  of  all  his 
family.  The  place  to  which  the  money,  sometimes 
as  much  as  ten  thousand  francs,  is  to  be  taken  is 
always  indicated  with  extreme  clearness,  and  in  several 
cases,  the  name  of  the  person  who  is  to  bring  it  is 
given,  and  that  -person  is  generally  some  one  in  the 
victim's  employment. 

These  instances,  ith  a  great  quantity 

of  corroboratory  evidence  by  a  chief  officer  of  the  Sicil- 
ian police,  should  be  enough  to  explain  the  nature  of 
the  despotism  exercised'  cn- 

ing   letters   to   high  :    step. 

Upon  the  road  that   k;  . ienno  to  Misilmeri 

there  is  a  hamlet  called  Portella  di  Mare,  which  is 
famous  for  the  number  of  attacks  made  upon  trav- 
ellers. In  the  whole  province  of  Palermo  the  §tatis- 

N 

tics  show  that  there  were  one  thousand  and  ninety-two 
highway  robberies  between  the  years  1893  and  1899 
inclusive.  When  it  is  considered  that  no  country  in 
the  world  is  so  thoroughly;  patrolled  by  an  efficient 
and  courageous  police,  such  figures  show  the  magni- 
tude of  the  difficulty  with  which  the  authorities  have 

AMI223M  flA3M   ,01833 JA   TMA2  HO  -3JT2AO 


The  Mafia  379 

to  contend.  A  further  consideration  of  the  subject 
would  lead  too  far,  but  with  regard  to  brigandage  in 
Sicily  it  should  be  distinctly  understood  that  it  does 
not  form  a  part  of  the  system  called  the  Mafia,  but  is 
often  closely  connected  with  it  by  the  bond  of  com- 
mon interest.  The  principal  reason  why  brigandage 
continues  to  exist  is  that  the  outlaws  make  themselves 
useful  to  certain  great  landholders,  who,  in  return,  pro- 
tect the  malefactors  from  the  police.  It  may  even  be 
known  that  a  whole  band  —  supposing  it  to  be  travel- 
ling together,  which  rarely  happens  —  may  be  con- 
cealed in  the  house  of  a  rich  man,  and  that  the  police 
may  be  cognizant  of  the  fact.  In  order  to  search  the 
house,  the  commander  of  the  detachment  must  pro- 
duce a  judicial  warrant  authorizing  him  to  do  so.  The 
little  squad  of  carbineers  and  soldiers  of  the  line  have 
very  probably  tracked  the  bandits  for  several  days 
through  a  wild  and  dangerous  country,  not  having 
the  slightest  idea  where  they  might  next  take  refuge. 
It  would  be  manifestly  impossible  to  issue  a  general 
warrant  authorizing  the  police  to  search  any  house  in 
the  country,  for  this  would  be  regarded  as  an  act  of 
tyranny,  and  the  Mafia  would  probably  retort  by  bring- 
ing on  a  general  revolution  throughout  the  island.  If 
the  officer  commanding  the  pursuing  party  sends  back 
to  his  chief,  therefore,  for  the  necessary  authority,  the 
bandits,  well  informed  of  their  pursuers'  movements, 
have  plenty  of  time  to  escape  to  another  hiding- 


380  The   Rulers  of  the  South 

place ;  and  if  the  officer  at  last  receives  the  warrant, 
uses  it,  and  finds  no  brigands  in  the  house,  the  pro- 
prietor makes  complaint  to  the  heads  of  the  Mafia, 
who  have  innumerable  weapons  at  their  command  with 
which  to  make  the  action  of  the  police  publicly  ridicu- 
lous. But  if  the  officer,  being  quite  sure  that  the 
brigands  are  in  the  house,  takes  upon  himself  the 
responsibility  of  searching  it  without  a  warrant,  and 
if,  as  will  very  probably  happen,  the  whole  band 
escapes  through  a  subterranean  passage,  such  as  may 
be  foimd  in  many  Sicilian  houses,  he  is  liable  to  an 
action  at  law,  in  the  course  of  which  the  Mafia  will 
spend  hundreds  of  thousands  of  francs  and  put  out 
its  whole  strength  to  destroy  him.  If  by  any  possi- 
bility he  escapes  being  dismissed  from  the  service  for 
having  overstepped  his  authority,  his  only  chance  of 
life  is  to  leave  the  island  secretly  and  at  once.  As 
for  a  proprietor  who  refuses  to  receive  the  brigands 
or  to  offer  them  the  best  he  has  so  long  as  they  are 
pleased  to  prolong  their  visit,  neither  his  property  nor 
his  life  will  ever  be  safe  from  that  day.  His  crops 
will  be  burned,  his  orange  and  lemon  trees  hacked  to 
pieces,  his  vines  torn  up  by  the  roots ;  and  if  he  is 
the  possessor  of  great  herds  of  cattle  or  flocks  of 
sheep,  the  professional  cattle  lifters  who  abound  in 
Sicily  will  mark  him  for  their  prey,  knowing  that 
neither  the  Mafia  nor  any  band  of  outlaws  will  raise 
a  finger  to  protect  him.  By  twos  and  threes  his  cows 


The  Mafia  381 

and  his  oxen  will   disappear ;  with  a  skill   that  would 
do    honour   to  Texas    the   brands  on  the  animals  will 


THE    PLACE    WHERE    MURAT    WAS    SHOT    IN    THE    CASTI.E   AT    PIZZO 

be  converted  into  new  and  different  ones,  and  before 
long  the  stolen  property  will  be  sold  at  a  cattle  fair 
a  hundred  miles  away.  If  at  the  end  of  a  year  the 


382  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

unhappy  victim  is  alive,  he  is  wholly  ruined,  but  it 
is  far  more  probable  that  a  bullet  will  have  ended  his 
troubles  long  before  that  time.  To  bring  about  such 
dire  results,  it  is  not  even  necessary  that  he  should 
have  shut  his  doors  against  the  outlaws ;  he  may 
receive  them,  entertain  them,  and  thank  them  for  the 
honour  of  their  visit,  as  is  customary  in  such  cases, 
but  if  he  should  afterwards  give  the  least  clew  to 
their  movements,  he  is  a  doomed  man  as  surely  as 
if  he  had  refused  to  receive  them.  I  repeat  that 
bandits  are  not  necessarily  Mafiusi,  but  in  the  great 
majority  of  cases  they  have  been  'friends'  before 
taking  to  the  woods ;  and  though  the  higher  Mafia 
may  disapprove  of  their  proceedings,  it  is  rarely  unwill- 
ing to  make  exhibition  of  its  vast  power  and  of  its 
contempt  of  the  law  by  affording  them  its  protection. 
The  Mafiusi  may  occasionally  quarrel  among  them- 
selves and  blood  may  be  shed  in  encounters  that  are 
regarded  as  honourable,  for  it  is  only  a  man  con- 
demned by  the  society  who  is  murdered  without  a 
chance  for  his  life ;  the  society  will  never  interfere 
in  the  settlement  of  questions  of  so-called  honour, 
whereas  it  acts  as  a  tribunal  for  all  disagreements 
which  would  be  settled  by  law  in  a  civilized  country. 
But,  owing  to  the  strong  peculiarities  of  the  Sicilian 
character,  violent  disputes  between  the  '  friends '  are 
extremely  rare,  and  the  solidarity  of  the  whole  society 
might  be  an  example  to  associations  formed  with  a 


The  Mafia  383 

better  object.  It  would  be  unjust  to  Italy  to  leave 
such  a  subject  without  making  two  important  state- 
ments. In  the  first  place,  it  is  quite  wrong  to  suppose 
that  foreigners  visiting  Sicily  and  having  no  interests 
in  the  island  are  exposed  to  any  danger  from  the 
Mafia  or  from  any  organized  band  of  brigands,  and 
with  ordinary  precautions,  if  the  traveller  is  willing  to 
avoid  a  few  dangerous  localities,  he  will  not  be  more 
exposed  to  the  attacks  of  common  thieves  than  in 
many  other  countries.  He  may  go  with  safety  where 
a  Sicilian  nobleman  or  a  landholder  hostile  to  the 
illicit  powers  would  need  the  protection  of  a  dozen 
mounted  carbineers,  and  this  well-known  fact  has  been 
proved  true  in  hundreds  of  cases.  Foreigners  who  have 
been  taken  by  brigands  in  Sicily  and  held  for  ransom 
have  invariably  possessed  some  vested  interest  in  the 
country.  This  may  be  accepted  as  positively  certain. 
Secondly,  as  I  have  already  said,  the  Camorra  of 
Naples  does  not  extend  beyond  the  suburbs  of  the 
city.  The  southern  mainland  from  Naples  to  the  straits 
is  one  of  the  safest  tracts  of  country  in  the  world  ;  it  has 
produced  no  society  even  faintly  approaching  the  Mafia, 
brigandage  has  been  totally  stamped  out  by  the  Italian 
government,  and  the  entire  absence  of  travellers  who 
might  be  robbed  is  a  sufficient  reason  why  the  evil 
should  not  break  out  again.  The  southern  mountains 
are  wild  and  desolate  beyond  description,  the  southern 
plains  are  lonely  and  thinly  populated,  the  poverty  of 


384  The  Rulers  of  the  South 

the  lower  classes  everywhere  is  painful  to  see  ;  but  the 
country  is  safe  from  end  to  end,  and  the  student,  the  artist, 
or  the  idler  may  traverse  it  in  all  directions,  alone  or  in 
company,  on  foot  or  on  horseback,  without  incurring  the 
slightest  risk.  It  is  due  to  the  honourable  and  untiring 
efforts  of  the  present  government  to  state  this  very  clearly, 
and  if  the  power  which  has  accomplished  so  much  on  the 
mainland  is  unable  to  make  headway  against  the  Mafia  in 
Sicily,  the  reason  is  that  the  Mafia  is  not  an  organized 
and  tangible  body  which  could  be  called  to  account  for  its 
actions,  but  is  the  inevitable  result  of  many  combined 
circumstances,  involving  national  character,  national  tra- 
ditions, and  certain  especial  conditions  of  agriculture 
and  wealth,  none  of  which  exist  together  anywhere  else 
in  the  world. 

********* 

My  task  is  ended.  If  the  curiosity  of  my  readers  is 
unsatisfied,  let  them  visit  the  south  and  seek  out  for 
themselves  those  things  which  they  desire  to  know ;  if 
they  are  disappointed  with  the  story  of  twenty  centuries, 
as  I  have  told  it,  let  them  look  into  the  fathomless 
archives  of  southern  history  and  read  in  half  a  dozen 
languages  and  dialects  the  thousand  tales  which  I  have 
left  untold.  In  either  case,  I  shall  not  have  laboured  in 
vain.  If  any/  after  reading  this  book,  are  tempted  to 
wander  through  some  of  the  most  beautiful  and  mem- 
orable places  in  the  world,  or  if  any,  desiring  more 
knowledge,  are  impelled  to  pursue  the  study  of  classic 


The  Mafia 


385 


history  or  the  romantic  chronicles  of  Norman  times,  I 
am  more  than  repaid  for  having  attempted  what  is 
perhaps  impossible. 


THE    END 


*-•• 


CHRONOLOGICAL    TABLE 


VOLUME   II 

A.D. 

451  ....  The  Synod  of  Chalcedon  confirms  the  action  of 
the  Synod  of  Constantinople  (381),  which 
gave  the  Bishop  of  Rome  precedence  over 
all  others. 

472     ....     Ricimer  the  Goth,  who  had  captured  Rome,  dies. 

475  ....     Romulus   Augustulus    created    Emperor  of  the 

West. 

476  ....     Romulus  Augustulus  deposed  by   Odoacer,  the 

Goth. 

488  ....     Theodoric  the  Ostrogoth  invades  Italy. 

489  ....     Theodoric  overcomes  Odoacer  in  battle  at  Verona. 
493     ....     Theodoric  murders  Odoacer  and  proclaims  him- 
self King  of  Italy. 

500  (about)  .  A  basilica  dedicated  to  Saint  Michael  the  Arch- 
angel, at  Monte  Gargano,  in  Manfredonia. 

526  .  .  .  .  Theodoric  puts  Boethius  and  Symmachus  to 
death. 

526  ....     Theodoric  succeeded   by  his   daughter  Amala- 

suntha. 

527  ....     Justinian  becomes  Emperor  of  the  East. 

535  ....  Amalasuntha  assassinated,  and  Justinian  sends 
Belisarius  to  avenge  her  death. 

535  ....     Belisarius   takes   Palermo  and   Naples.      Sicily 

becomes  part  of  the  Eastern  Empire. 

536  ....     Rome  besieged  by  the  Goths,  who  are  forced  to 

retire  by  Belisarius. 

387 


388 


Chronological  Table 


A.D. 
540     ....     Belisarius  leaves  Italy. 

540  (about)      .     Gregory  the  Great  born. 

544     ....     Totila  the  Goth  besieges  and  takes  Naples. 

546     ....     Totila  besieges  and  takes  Rome,  but  evacuates 

it,  and  it  is  reoccupied  by  Belisarius. 
549     ....     Totila   takes    Reggio,   crosses    the  straits,   and 

ravages  Sicily. 
549     ....     Belisarius  returns  to  Constantinople,  and  Totila 

again  seizes  Rome. 

552  ....     Narses  defeats  the  Goths  in  battle,  and  Totila  is 

slain. 

553  ....     Narses  expels  the  Goths,  and  Italy  is  again  part 

of  the  Eastern  Empire. 

568     ....     Italy  first  invaded  by  the  Lombards. 
570     ...     Mohammed  born. 

590     ....     Autharis,  the  Lombard,  dies  at  Ticinum. 
590     ....     Gregory  the  Great  becomes  Pope. 
610  (about)      .     Mohammed  begins  to  propagate  his  doctrines. 
622     ....     The  Hejira,  or  flight  of  Mohammed  from  Mecca 

to  Medina. 

652     ....     The  Mohammedans  raid  and  despoil  Sicily. 

668     ....     The  Emperor  Constans  murdered  in  his  bath  at 

Syracuse  by  a  slave. 
717     .     .     .     .     The    Emperor    Leo   the    Isaurian    decrees    the 

removal  of  all  images  from  churches. 

766     ....     Antiochus,  governor  of  Sicily,  martyred  at  Con- 
stantinople for  refusing  to  obey  the  decree 

against  images. 
772     ....     Jacob,  Bishop  of  Catania,  suffers  martyrdom  for 

the  same  cause. 
787     ....     The  Empress  Irene  revokes  Leo's  decree  against 

images. 
826     ....     The  troops  in  Sicily  rise  against  the  Emperor 

Michael  Balbus. 


Chronological   Table  389 

A.D. 

827     ....     Sicily  invaded  by  a  Saracen  army. 

829     ....     Mineo  and  Mazzara  taken  by  the  Saracens. 

83 1  ...     Messina  taken  by  the  Saracens. 

832  ....     Palermo  taken  by  the  Saracens  after  a  disastrous 

siege. 
842     .  .     .     Sicily  ravaged  by  a  plague  of  locusts. 

842     ....     Italy   invaded    by  the   Saracens,    who   settle   at 

Bari. 
845     .  .     .     The  fortresses  of  Modica  taken  by  the  Saracens. 

845  ...     A  Saracen  fleet  defeated  by  the  united  forces  of 

Amalfi,    Gaeta,   and    Sorrento,   led    by    Duke 
Sergius  of  Naples. 

846  ....     Nine   thousand   Greeks   slain    by   the    Saracens 

before  Castrogiovanni. 

847  ....     Leontini  taken  by  the  Saracens. 

848  ....     Ragusa  taken  by  the  Saracens. 

848  ....     Sicily  suffers  from  a  great  famine. 

849  ....     A    Mohammedan    army   attacks    Rome    and   is 

defeated  by  Pope  Leo  IV. 

854     ....     Butera  besieged  by  the  Saracens. 

858  ....     Aghlab,  first  Mohammedan  governor  of  Sicily, 

dies  at  Palermo. 

859  .     .     .     The  Emir  Abas,  second  Mohammedan  governor 

of    Sicily,    overruns    the    country,   and   takes 
Castrogiovanni. 

863  (about)  .  A  quarrel  between  the  Bishop  of  Syracuse  and 
the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  leads  to  the 
Schism  of  the  East  and  West,  which  divides 
the  Greek  and  Catholic  churches. 

870     ....     Malta  taken  by  the  Saracens. 

872  ....  The  Saracens  attempt  to  take  Salerno,  but  are 
defeated. 

878     ....     Syracuse  taken  and  laid  waste  by  the  Saracens. 


393 


Chronological  Table 


A.D. 

950  (about)      .     Ibn  Haukal,  an  Arab  traveller  and  writer,  visits 

Palermo. 

995  (about)  .  Forty  Norman  pilgrims  rout  a  Saracen  host  out- 
side Salerno,  and  on  their  return  invite  other 
Norman  nobles  to  occupy  Italy. 

1019  ....  The  Normans,  led  by  Raoul  de  Toeni,  and  the 
Lombards,  under  Meles,  are  outnumbered  and 
defeated  by  the  Byzantines,  on  Hannibal's 
battlefield  of  Cannae. 

1030  ....  Rainulf  builds  and  fortifies  Aversa,  near  Naples, 
the  first  Norman  city  in  Italy. 

1034  ....  Civil  war  in  Italy,  and  the  Saracens  ask  the 
Greeks  to  intervene. 

1038  ....     An  army  of  Greek  mercenaries,  and  a  small  band 

of  Normans,  cross  the  straits,  and  defeat  the 
Saracens  at  Messina. 

1039  •     •     •     •     Guaimar,  Greek  Duke  of  Salerno,  takes  posses- 

sion of  Amalfi,  and  afterwards  of  Sorrento. 

1041  ....     The  Normans  defeat  the  Greeks  in  three  pitched 

battles,  in  spite  of  heavy  odds. 

1042  ....     Maniaces,  the  Greek  General,  is  unable  to  make 

his  soldiers  face  the  Normans. 

1043  ....     Quarrel  about  the  lands  of  Monte  Cassino,  be- 

tween Randolph  the  Wolf,  Guaimar  of  Salerno, 
and  Rainulf  of  Aversa. 
1046     ....     Apulia  revolts  against  Constantinople. 

1046  ....     The   Emperor   Henry    III.    makes   Clement    II. 

Pope. 

1047  ....     The  Emperor  and  the  Pope  attempt  to  pacify  and 

organize  Southern  Italy,  without  success. 

1052  ....     Guaimar,  Duke  of  Salerno,  murdered  by  men  of 

Amalfi. 
t 

1053  ....     Pope  Leo  IX.  dies,  and  the  division  between  the 

Eastern  and  Western  Churches  becomes  per- 
manent. 


Chronological  Table  391 

A.D. 

1053  ....  The  Normans,  led  by  Humphrey  of  Apulia, 
Richard  of  Aversa,  and  Robert  Guiscard, 
defeat  the  Germans  and  Lombards  in  battle 
near  Monte  Gargano. 

1057  ....     Robert  Guiscard  succeeds  his  brother  Humphrey 

as  Count  of  Apulia. 

1058  ....     Pope  Nicholas  II.  visits  Apulia,  and  returns  to 

Rome  at  the  head  of  a  Norman  army. 

1060  ....     The  Norman  Count  Roger,  afterwards  known  as 

"  the  Great  Count,"  with  sixty  knights,  raids 
Sicily  from  Reggio. 

1061  ....     Count  Roger,  with  four  hundred  and  forty  knights, 

captures  Messina. 

1061  ....     Count  Roger  marries  Judith,  daughter  of  William 

of  Evreux,  at  Mileto. 

1062  ....     Count  Roger  and  his  wife  besieged  by  the  Sara- 

cens at  Troina. 
1064     ....     Count  Roger  and  Robert  Guiscard  make  a  futile 

attempt  to  take  Palermo. 
1068     ....     Count   Roger   wins   a   decisive   battle   over  the 

Saracens  at  Misilmeri,  near  Palermo. 

1068  ....  Robert  Guiscard  puts  down  an  insurrection  of 
the  Greeks  in  Apulia. 

1071  .     .     .     .     Robert  Guiscard  takes  Bari,  after  a  long  siege. 

1072  ....     Robert  Guiscard  and  Count  Roger  besiege  and 

take  Palermo. 

1073  ....     Robert  Guiscard  is  desperately  ill,  but  recovers. 

1083  ....     Robert  Guiscard  takes  an  army  as  far  as  Rome, 

burns  half  the  city,  and  routs  the  Emperor 
Henry  IV. 

1084  ....     Robert  Guiscard  dies  at  Durazzo. 

1085  ....     Calabria  invaded  by  the  Arab  Ben  Arwet. 

1086  ....     Count  Roger   defeats   and   kills    Ben    Arwet   at 

Syracuse. 


392  Chronological  Table 

AD. 

1089     ....     Judith,  wife  of  Count  Roger,  dies. 

1091     .     .     .     .     Noto  capitulates,  which  completes  the  Norman 

conquest  of  Sicily. 
Count  Roger  takes  Malta. 
Count  Roger  helps  his  nephew,  Roger,  to  repress 

the  rebellion  of  Grantmesnil,  in  Castrovillari. 
iioi     .     .     .     .     Roger  the  Great  Count  dies  at  Mileto. 
1127     .     .     .     .     Roger  of  Sicily,  son  of  the  Great  Count,  takes 

possession  of  Apulia. 

1130     .     .     .     .     Roger  crowned  King  of  Sicily  at  Palermo.' 
1139     .      .     .     .     King  Roger  takes  Pope  Innocent  II.  prisoner  at 

San  Germano,  and  obtains  investiture  of  Sicily, 

Apulia,  and  Capua. 
1149     ....     King  Roger  rescues  and  entertains  Lewis  VII.  of 

France,  on   his  way  home    from  the   Second 

Crusade. 
.     .     .     .     King  Roger  succeeded  by  his  second  son,  William 

the  Bad. 
.     .     .     .     William  the  Bad  succeeded  by  his  son  William  II., 

the  Good. 
William    the    Good    succeeded    by   Tancred,   a 

natural    son     of    William    the     Bad's     elder 

brother. 
1194     ....     Tancred   dies,  leaving   his   crown  to  his  young 

son,  William  III. 
1194     .     ,     .     .     William    III.    deposed   by   the   Emperor    Henry 

VI.   of  Hohenstaufen,  who  claims  the  crown 

through  his  wife  Constance,  daughter  of  King 

Roger. 
1194     ....     The  Emperor  Frederick  II.,  son  of  Henry  and 

Constance,  born  at  Palermo. 
1197     ....     Henry  VI.  dies  at  Castrogiovanni,  and  his  widow 

crowns  her  son  Frederick  King  of  Sicily. 
1197     .          .     .     Queen  Constance  dies,  leaving  the  Pope  guardian 

of  her  son. 


Chronological  Table  393 

A.D. 

1208     ....     Frederick  II.   declared  of  age,  and  married  to 

Constance  of  Aragon. 

12 12          ...     Frederick  goes  to  Germany  to  claim  his  Empire. 
1220     ....     Frederick  is  crowned  in  Rome,  and  returns  to 

Sicily. 
1239     ....     Frederick  establishes  his  Mohammedan  colonists 

in  Apulia,  in  the  town  called  from  them  Lucera 

de'  Saraceni. 
1250     ....     Frederick  dies  at  Castel   Florentine,  in  Apulia, 

and  is  succeeded  by  his  second  son  Conrad. 

1253  ....     Pope    Innocent    IV.    names    Charles   of  Anjou 

King  of  Sicily,  Duke  of  Apulia,  and  Prince 
of  Capua. 

1254  .  Conrad  succeeded  by  his  son  Conradin,  two  years 

old,  whose  guardian  is  his  half-uncle,  Manfred, 

a  natural  son  of  Frederick  II. 
1258     ....     Manfred  takes  the  crown  of  Sicily,  promising  to 

leave  it  to  his  nephew  at  his  death. 
1263     ....     Charles  of  Anjou  authorized  by  Pope  Urban  IV. 

to  begin  the  conquest  of  the  south. 
1266     ....     Manfred  slain  at  the  battle  of  Benevento,  and 

Charles  of  Anjou  created  King  of  Naples  and 

Sicily  by  Pope  Clement  IV. 
1268     ....     Conradin  loses  the  battle  of  Tagliacozzo,  and  is 

betrayed  and  sold  to  Charles. 
1268     ....     Conradin  beheaded  at  Naples. 
1282          ...     Massacre  of  the  French  by  the  Italians,  known  as 

the  Sicilian  Vespers,  takes  place  at  Palermo 

on  Easter  Monday. 
1282     ....     King    Peter  of  Aragon,  husband    of  Constance 

the  daughter  of  Manfred,  summoned  by  the 

nobles,    drives    out    Charles    of   Anjou,    and 

becomes  King  of  Sicily. 
1285     ....     Peter  III.  of  Aragon  and  I.  of  Sicily  leaves  the 

latter  kingdom  to  his  second  son  James  the 

Just. 


394  Chronological  Table 

A  D. 

1285  ....  Charles  of  Anjou  succeeded  in  his  Kingdom  of 
Naples  by  his  son  Charles  II. 

1291  ....  James  I.,  the  Just,  succeeds  to  the  throne  of 
Aragon  as  James  II.,  leaving  that  of  Sicily  to 
his  brother  Frederick  II. 

1296  ....  Frederick  II.  elected  king  by  the  Sicilian  Parlia- 
ment after  an  interregnum  of  four  years. 

1309  ....  Charles  II.  of  Naples  succeeded  in  that  king- 
dom by  his  third  son,  Robert  the  Wise. 

1337  ....  Frederick  II.  of  Sicily  succeeded  by  his  son 
Peter  II.,  who  is  crowned  during  his  father's 
lifetime. 

1342  ....     Peter  II.  dies  without  male  issue,  and  the  crown 

of  Sicily  goes  to  Lewis,  son  of  Peter  IV.  of 
Aragon. 

1343  ....     Robert  the  Wise  succeeded  on  the  throne  of 

Naples  by  his  granddaughter,  Joan  I.,  sixteen 
years  old,  married  to  her  cousin  Andrew, 
brother  of  the  King  of  Hungary. 

1345  ....  Andrew,  consort  of  Queen  Joan,  murdered  at 
Aversa  with  her  connivance. 

1349  ....  The  great  basilica  at  Monte  Cassino  destroyed 
by  an  earthquake. 

1355  ....  Lewis  of  Sicily  succeeded  by  his  younger  brother, 
Frederick  III. 

1377  ....  Frederick  III.  of  Sicily  succeeded  by  his  daugh- 
ter Mary,  and  her  husband,  Martin  of  Aragon. 

1381  ....     Charles  III.  of  Durazzo  enters  Naples,  takes  the 

crown,  and  imprisons  his  cousin  Joan  I.  at 
Muro. 

1382  ....     Joan  I.  murdered  at  Muro. 

1386  ....  Charles  III.  of  Durazzo  succeeded  on  the  throne 
of  Naples  by  his  son  Ladislaus. 

1402  ....  Mary  I.,  Queen  of  Sicily,  succeeded  by  her  hus- 
band, Martin  I. 


Chronological  Table  395 

A.D. 

1409  ....  Martin  I.  of  Sicily  dies  without  issue,  succeeded 
by  his  father,  Martin  II.  of  Sicily  and  I.  of 
Aragon,  which  reunites  the  two  kingdoms. 

1409  ....     Martin  II.  dies,  and  Blanche  of  Navarre,  widow 

of  Martin  I.,  is  vicar  and  lieutenant  of  Sicily, 
there  being  seven  claimants  to  the  throne. 

1410  ....     Bernardo  Cabrera,  Count  of  Modica,  attempts  to 

marry  Blanche  and  seize  the  crown  of  Sicily. 

1412  .  .  .  .  Ferdinand  the  Just  crowned  King  of  Sicily  and 
Aragon,  succeeding  his  uncle,  Martin  II.  of 
Sicily  and  I.  of  Aragon. 

1414  .  .  .  .  Ladislaus  of  Naples  succeeded  by  his  sister 
Joanna  II. 

1416  ....  Saint  Francis  of  Paola  born  at  Paola,  in  Cala- 
bria. 

1416  ....  Alfonso  V.,  the  Magnanimous,  succeeds  his  father, 
Ferdinand  the  Just,  as  King  of  Sicily  and 
Aragon. 

1435  •  •  •  •  Joanna  II.  of  Naples,  last  of  the  Durazzo  line, 
appoints  as  her  successor  by  her  will  Re*ne  of 
Anjou,  Duke  of  Lorraine. 

1442  ....  Rdne"  of  Anjou,  "the  Good  King  Re"neY'  ex- 
pelled from  Naples  by  Alfonso  the  Magnani- 
mous, who  claims  the  throne  through  the 
female  line,  and  unites  the  kingdoms  of  Naples, 
Sicily,  and  Aragon. 

1453  ....  The  Sultan  Mohammed  II.  storms  Constanti- 
nople. 

1458  ....  Alfonso  I.,  the  Magnanimous,  bequeaths  Naples 
to  his  son  Ferdinand,  and  Sicily  to  his  younger 
brother  John. 

1479  ....  John  II.  of  Sicily,  Aragon,  and  Navarre  suc- 
ceeded by  his  son  Ferdinand  II.  of  Sicily  and 
V.  of  Aragon.  «  The  Catholic.'1 


Chronological  Table 


AD. 

1494  .     .     .     Ferdinand  I.  of  Naples  succeeded  by  his  eldest 

son,  Alfonso  II.,  Duke  of  Calabria. 

1495  ....     Alfonso  II.  abdicates  in  favour  of  his  eldest  son, 

Ferdinand  II. 

1495  ....     King  Charles  VIII.  of  France  takes  Naples. 

1496  ....     Ferdinand  II.  succeeded  by  his  uncle,  Frederick 

IV. 

1500  ....  By  the  Treaty  of  Granada,  Ferdinand  the  Catho- 
lic, of  Sicily  and  Spain,  and  Lewis  XII.  of 
France,  agree  to  divide  the  kingdom  of  Naples 
between  them. 

1503  ....     Tournament  between  French  and  Italian  knights, 

known  as  the  "  Sfida  di  Barletta." 

1504  ....     Frederick  IV.  dies  of  grief,  and  Ferdinand  the 

Catholic  becomes  King  of  Naples  and  Sicily. 

1515  ....     Joan  III.,  daughter  of  Ferdinand  the  Catholic  and 

Isabella  his  wife,  succeeds  her  father. 

1516  .     .     .     .     Pope  Leo  X .  almost  captured  by  Barbary  pirates. 
1516     .     .     .     .     Joan  III.  abdicates  in  favour  of  her  son  Charles 

IV.,  afterwards  the  Emperor  Charles  V. 

1519  .  .  .  .  Charles  V.  elected  to  the  empire  of  Germany,  for 
which  Francis  I.  is  also  a  candidate. 

1524  ....     Battle  of  Sesia,  between  the  French  and  Italians, 

at  which  the  Chevalier  Bayard  is  slain. 

1525  ....     Charles  V.   defeats   and  captures  Francis   I.   of 

France  at  the  b'attle  of  Pavia. 

1529  ....  Treaty  of  peace  at  Cambrai,  by  which  Francis  I, 
abandons  his  claim  to  Italy. 


INDEX 


Abas,  ii.  77-78 

Abul  Kare,  ii.  198 

Acestes,  i.  5 

Achradina,  i.  95 

Aci  Castello,  i.  6 

Action,  i.  37 

Adelasia,  ii   250 

Adenulf  of  Aquino,  ii.  158 

Adern6,  i.  199 

Admetus,  i.  264 

Adrianus,  Patrician,  ii.  100-101 

Adverarda,  ii.  169 

./Eneas,  i.  6 

jEschylus,  i   83-85,  183 

.(Etna,  city  of,  i.  87,  97,  98,  100 

..Etna,  nymph,  i.  3,  4 

Agatha,  Saint,  i.  369 

Agathias,  ii   35-36 

Agathocles,  i.  13,  39,  76,  207-226;  ii.  114 

Aghlab,  ii.  75,  109 

Agriculture  — 

in  Sicily,  development  of,  by  Sicelians, 

i-  9 
in  time  of  Pope  Gregory  the  Great,  ii. 

52-S3 

under  Augustus  Caesar,  i.  342-344 
under  Hiero  the  Second,  i.  236 
under  Roman  domination,  i.  289 
under  the  Vandals,  i.  373 

Agrigentum,    i.  37,    250,    255,    283.       See 
Akragas 

Akragas,    i.    37,    79,    101,    159-162.      See 
Agrigentum 

Alardo,  ii.  311 

Alaric,  i.  14;  ii.  370 

Alaymo,  ii.  325-326 

Alcestis,  i.  264 

Alcibiades,  i.  93,  104,  107-117,  126-127,  351 

Alexander  the  Great,  i   76,  238,  261 

Alexandrian,  the  ship,  i.  238,  261 

'  Alexiad,'  the,  ii.  164 

Alfonso  of  Aragon,  ii.  344 

the  Magnanimous,  ii.  348 

'  All-harbour,'  the,  i.  71 

Alpheius,  121 


Alps,  Hannibal  crosses,  i.  269 

Amalafrida,  ii   3 

Amalasuntha,  ii.  ii 

Amalfi,  ii.  141 

Amari,  ii.  73,  200,  241,  248,  271,  277,  290 

Amasis,  i.  50,  52,  54 

Anacreon,  i.  46,  47 

Anapus,  i.  119,  121,  261-263 

Anastasius  the  Librarian,  ii.  112 

Anaxilas  of  Rhegium,  i.  70,  78 

Anaximander,  i.  48 

Ancona,  ii.  27,  273 

Andreas,  ii.  59 

Andrew  of  Hungary,  ii.  337-341 

'  Angels,  not  Angles,'  ii.  43 

Angelus,  Bishop  of  Troia,  ii.  148 

'  Annals  of  Aragon,'  ii.  350 

Anne  of  Austria,  ii.  270,  336 

Anselm  of  Canterbury,  ii.  249 

Antandros,  i.  223 

Antiochus,  i.  299.     See  Euniis 

Antiochus,  governor  of  Sicily,  ii.  65 

Antipope  — 

Anacletus,  ii.  260,  261 

Benedict,  ii.  191,  194 

Honorius,  ii.  236 

John  of  Velletri,  ii.  190 
Antony,  M-ark,  i.  331,  338-342 
Anxur,  i.  8 

Apennines,  battle  of  the,  ii.  28 
Aphrodite,  i.  330;   ii.  55 
Apollo,  i.  34,  198;  ii.  55 
Apollonius,  i.  307 


Apparitors,  i.  28 
Aprile,  Francesco,  ii.  345,  348 
Apulia,  i.  21,  146-154;  ii.  246 
Aquila,  ii.  297,  303 
Aquillius,  Manlius,  i.  311-312 
Aquino,  Count  of,  ii.  186-187 
Arabs,  Sicily  taken  by,  10 

lack  of  social  constitution,  i.  22 
Archias  of  Corinth,  i.  37,  242 
Archifred,  ii.  231 
Archimedes,  i.  13,  238-242,  277,  278,  282 

tomb  of,  i.  320 
Archytas,  i.  190 

397 


398 


Index 


Ardoin,  ii.  142, 145 

Arete,  i.  190 

Arethusa,  the  spring,  i.  120;  ii.  82 

Argirizzo,  ii.  219,  223,  224 

Argyros,  ii.  151  ff.,  173  ff.,  217 

Ariminum,  i.  271. 

Arisgot  of  Pozzuoli,  ii.  233 

Aristomache,  i.  193 

Aristotle,  i.  9,  63;  ii.  118 

Arius,  i.  370 

Art  — 

Barocco,  ii.  360-361 

Egyptian,  i.  41 

first  development  of,  in  Sicily,  i.  87 

Saracen-Norman,  ii.  254-257 
Artabanes,  ii.  28 
Artemis,  i.  3 

temple  of,  i.  6 
Ascoli,  ii.  147 
Ased,  ii.  72-73 
Ashtaroth,  i.  70,  263 
Athalaric,  ii.  4,  5,  ii 
Athenaeus,  i.  82 
Athene,  i.  3;  ii.  55 
Athenio,  i.  309-312,  314 
Athens,  105  107 
Athletes,  Greek,  i.  43 
Atossa,  i.  54 
Attalus,  i.  305 
Attila,  ii.  2 

Aubert,  Bishop,  ii.  126 
Aululiis,  i.  271 
Augusta,  harbour  of,  i.  36 
Austrasians,  ii.  15 
Austria,  Duke  of,  ii.  311-314 
Autharis,  ii.  37 
Aversa,  ii.  137,  145,  339,  343 

B 

Baal,  i.  263 
Baal-Moloch,  i.  2 
Babylon,  i.  42 
Bacchylides,  i.  80,  82 
Bui  a:,  treaty  of,  i.  340 
Balbus,  Michael,  ii   71 
Barbarossa,  Emperor,  ii   272-273,  279 

pirate,  ii.  354,  358 
Barbatus,  Saint,  ii.  58 
Bari,  ii.  131,  173,  214,  216,  219-225 
Barletta,  ii.  350,  351,  352 
'  Barocco'  art,  ii.  360,  361 
Basil,  Emperor,  ii.  100,  102,  106 

of  Gerace,  ii.  208 
Basle,  ii.  290 
Batiatus,  l.entulus,  i.  332 
Bayard,  Chevalier,  ii.  351,  356 


Beatrice,  ii.  188 

Bel,  temple  of,  i.  42 

Belgium,  i.  236 

Belisarius,  ii.  4,  6,  11-16,  18-21,  24 

Belshazzar,  i.  55 

Beltram,  ii.  339,  342 

Ben  Arwet,  ii.  241,  242,  244,  246-247 

Benedict  the  Tenth.    See  A  ntipope  Benedict 

Benevento,  ii.  171,  307,  308 

Beneventum,  Pyrrhus  defeated  at,  i.  228,  250 

destroyed,  ii.  17 
Bentley,  i.  62 

Bernard  of  Clairvaux,  ii.  261-262 
'  Besieger  of  Cities,'  i.'  224 
Bessas,  ii.  19-21 
Bishops,  ii.  50 
Bisignano,  ii.  168 
Bizanzio,  ii.  219 
Black  Bands,  the,  ii.  356 
Blanche  of  Navarre,  ii.  344,  346,  362 
Boethius,  ii   10.  99 
Bohemund   of   Antioch,    ii.    195,   239,  246, 

250 

Bomilcar,  i.  219 
'  Book  of  Roger,'  ii.  265 
Bordeaux,  ii.  329,  330,  331,  332 
Bourbons,  the,  ii.  270,  336,  359 
Bouvines,  battle  of,  ii.  290 
Braccio  del  Salvatore,  ii.  200 
Breusing,  Professor,  i.  243,  358-360 
Bridport,  Lord,  i.  293 
Brigandage,  i.  294-295,  343;  ii.  379-383 
Brindisi,  ii   220 
Bronte,  i.  3,  293;  ii.  47-48 
Brotherhood,    Pythagorean,    i.    58-61,    68, 

3°5 

Buatere,  Gilbert,  ii.  131 
Buddha,  i.  44,  51 
BufTon,  i.  241 
Burgundians,  ii.  15 
Butera,  taken  by  Saracens,  ii.  75,  248 


Cabrera,  Bernardo,  ii.  344-348,  362 
Caccilius  of  Calacte,  i   346 
Caesar,  Augustus,  i.  339-343,  345,  352 
Caesar,  Julius,  i.  338-339 
Calabria,  i.  21 :  ii.  246  ff. 
Calascibetta,  ii.  203,  204,  242 
Caligula,  i.  345 
Callipolis,  i.  69 
Callippus,  i.  195 
Cambrai,  treaty  of,  ii.  357 
Cambyses,  i.  41,  54,  55 
Camona,  i.  68;  ii.  363,  368 
Campagna,  ii.  14,  195 


Index 


399 


Cannae,  i.  269,  371 

battle  of  (1019),  ii.  133,  148 

battles  of  (1041),  ii.  148-150 
Canossa,  ii.  171 
Capo  Colonne,  i.  66 
Capo-mafia,  ii.  370 
Carcinus,  i.  206-208 
Cariati,  ii.  193 
Carmel,  Mount,  i.  51 
Carthage,  i.  69,  212  ff". 

destroyed,  i.  291 
Caruso,  ii.  101 
Cassandra,  i.  83 
Cassiodorus,  ii.  9-10 
Castor  and  Pollux,  ship,  i.  360 
Castrogiovanni,  i.  171,  279,  290;  ii.  203,  211 
233.  235.  242.  263,285,  297 

Byzantines  defeated  by  Moslems  at,  ii.  75 

taken  by  Great  Count  Roger,  ii.  247 
Castrovillari,  ii.  248 
Catacombs  of  Saint  Martian,  ii.  143 

of  San  Giovanni,  i.  79 
Catania,  i.  97.  98,  171;  ii.  ii,  240,  244 

coins  of,  i.  79 

Catapults,  long-range,  i.  172 
Cato,  Marcus  Porcius,  i.  338 
'  Caudex,"  i.  233 
Cavagnari,  Sir  Louis,  i.  304 
Cefalu,  ii.  206 

Cerami,  battle  of,  ii.  211-212,  214 
Cerignola,  battle  of,  ii.  352 
Chalcis,  i.  35 
Chaldaeans,  i.  49 

Charlemagne,  i.  371 ;  ii.  65,  67,  68,  297 
Charles  the  First  of  Anjou,  i.  10,  14,  16;  ii. 
269,  270,  291,  293,  298,  299, 

302-333 

Second  of  Anjou,  ii.  333 
Constable  of  Bourbon,  ii.  355,  356, 

357 

of  Durazzo,  ii   338,  342,  343 
the  Fifth,  Emperor,  ii.  335,  352-359 
Second  of  France,  the  '  Bald,' 

ii.  128 
Third  of  France,  the  '  Simple,' 

i.  10;  ii.  127 
Eighth  of  France,  ii.  349 
Christianity,  introduction  and  influence,  i 

351-372 

'  Chronicon  Sicilum,"  the,  ii.  75 
'  Ciceri.'  ii.  321 

Cicero,  i.  315,  320,  323,  335-338. 
Civil  wars,  Roman,  i.  316 
Civitate,  ii.  179,  181 
Claudius,  Appius,  i.  232-233 
Caius,  i.  232 


Cleo,  i.  300,  302 

Clodius,  Sextus,  i.  346 

Clytemnestra,  i.  83 

Cologne,  Archbishop  of,  ii.  134 

Coloni,  ii.  52 

Colonna,  the,  ii.  282,  336-337 

Prospero,  ii.  351 

Vittoria,  ii.  356 
Colossus  of  Rhodes,  i.  260 
'  Columna  rostrata,"  i.  253 
Comanus,  i.  302 
Commerce  — 

introduced  to  Sicily  by  Phoenicians,  i. «, 

in  time  of  the  Vandals,  i.  375 

under  Hiero  the  Second,  i.  236-237 
Comnena,  Anna,  ii.  164-166 
Confucius,  i.  44,  51 
Conrad  the  Third,  Emperor,  ii.  140,  154 

Fourth,  Emperor,  ii.  269,  295 

298,  299 
Fifth,  '  Conradin,'  Emperor,  ii 

269,  301,  302,  303,  309-314 
Constance  of  Hauteville,  ii.  251,  268,  278, 

282,  284-286 

Constans  the  Second,  ii.  57-59 
Constantine,  Emperor,  i.  352,  367 

the  Third.  Emperor,  ii.  59-60 
Constantinople,  i.  10;  ii.  8,  151,  217,  254 
Coral,  i.  21 
Corcyra,  i.  224 

Cordova,  Gonzalvo  de.  ii.  349,  352,  361 
Corfu,  i.  224 
Corsica,  ii.  ii 
Cosenza,  ii   215.  248 
Cossus,  Aulus  Cornelius,  i.  275 
Cotrone.     See  Crotona 
I  '  Count  of  the  Patrimony  of  Italy,'  ii.  38 
I  Counts  in  Sicily,  ii.  4-5 
|  Crassus,  i.  334 
|  Cremona,  ii.  290 
Crimisos.  i.  5 
Croesus,  i.  50 
Cromwell,  Oliver,  it.  99 
Crotona,  i.  43,  64-66,  80 

founded,  i.  37 

plundered  by  Agathocles,  i.  224 

tributary  to  Gelon,  i.  76 
Crusade  — 

Children's,  ii   292—293 

First,  ii.  249-250,  253-254 

Fourth,  ii.  287 

Second,  ii.  263 

Seventh,  ii.  315 
Cuba,  the,  ii.  284 
Cumz.  i.  26,  78;  ii.  35 

naval  battle  off,  i.  341 


400 


Index 


Curazzo,  Abbot  of,  ii.  282 

Curtius,  i   352 

Cutrera,  Antonio,  ii.  365  ff. 

Cyclops,  i.  6 

Cyrus,  i.  41,  54 

D 

Daedalus,  i.  4 
Dahn,  Felix,  ii.  10,  12,  23 
Damarete,  i   75 
Dainas,  i.  208 
Damon  and  Pythias,  i.  185 
Damophilus,  i.  297,  298 
Darius,  i.  41,  54 
Decius,  i.  369 

Delarc,  Abbe1,  ii.  127,  129-131,  146,  239,  250 
Delos,  i.  292 
Demeter,  i.  2,  197 
Demetrius  of  Macedonia,  i.  224 
Demosthenes,  i.  137,  140,  142-146 
Descartes,  i.  303 
Desclot,  Bernat,  ii.  324,  332 
Desiderius,  Abbot  of  Monte  Cassino,  ii.  191, 

236,  237 
'  Deus  ex  machina '  originated  by  jEschy- 

lus,  i.  84 

'  Die  Nautik  der  Alien,'  i.  243 
Digby,  Everard,  ii.  100 
Dinocrates,  i.  220.  223-224 
Diocletian,  i.  369 
Dion,  i.  188-195 
Dionysius  the  Elder,  i.  13,  16,  39,  ?6,  162- 

187 
Second,  i.  185,  187-190,  192, 

199 

Dolabella,  i.  321,  322 
Doria,  Andrea,  ii.  356 
Drepanon,  i.  2 

Drepanum,  naval  battle  at,  i.  252 
Drogo,  ii.  139  ff. ,  159,  166  ff.,  172 
Drouet,  ii.  320 
Ducetius,  i.  100-101 
Duilius,  i.  252,  253 
Durazzo,  ii.  215,  216,  245 

Charles  of,  ii.  338,  342,  343 


Ear  of  Dionysius,  i.  184 

East  India  Company,  Greeks  in  the  south 

compared  to,  i.  38-39 
Ecnomus,  Mount,  i   213 

naval  battle  off,  i.  254 
Edrisi,  ii.  265 
Egesta,  i   5 

Egypt,  civilization  of,  i.  41 
Elymos,  i.  5 
Enna.  i.  3 


Entebla,  i.  201,  202 
Epicharmus,  i.  83 
Epipolae,  171 
Eremberga,  ii.  205,  250 
Eryx,  Mount,  i.  2,  6,  173.  176 
Este,  chronicle  of,  ii.  339 
Eumenides,  i.  85 
Eunus,  i.  297-302 
Euphemius,  ii.  71-74 
Euphrates,  i.  42 
Euripides,  i.  150 
Euryalus,  fortress  of,  ii.  115 
Evisand,  ii.  244 
Exainetos,  i.  159 

F 

Falcandus,  ii.  276 
Faro,  ii.  143 
Fatimites,  ii.  109 
Fer,  Hugo,  ii.  292,  293 
Ferdinand  of  Aragon,  the  '  Just,"  ii.   348, 

349 
the  Catholic,  i.  10;  ii.  270,  335, 

352 

First  of  Naples,  ii.  344 
Festival  and  Games  of  Freedom,  i.  97 
Feudal  system,  ii.  139-140,  251 
Field  of  Blood,  ii.  133 
Fieramosca,  Ettore,  ii.  351 
i  Fiorentino,  Castel,  ii.  296,  297 
First  Punic  war,  i.  231—236,  249-260 
Flamma,  M.  Calpurnius,  i.  253 
i  Florence,  ii.  303,  362 
Francis  the  First  of  France,  ii.  354,  355, 356, 

358 

Frangipane,  ii.  311 
Franks,  ii.  28,  37 
Frederick  of  Aragon,  ii.  314 

the  First, '  Barbarossa,'  Emperor, 

ii.  272-273,  279 
Second,  Emperor,  i.   13;    ii 

267,  286  ff.,  298 
Second  of  Sicily,  ii.  270 
Froudsberg,  ii.  357 


Gaeta,  ii.  290,  352 

Gaillard,  M.  H.,  ii.  355 

Galera,  ii.  191,  194 

Garganus,  ii.  124 

Garibaldi,  ii.  222,  270,  373 

Gauls,  i.  234 

Gela,  i.  8,  37,  69 

Gellias  of  Akragas   i    159-162 

Gelon,  son  of  Hiero  the  Second  of  Syracuse, 

i.  268,  272 
tyrant  of  Syracuse,  i.  39,  69  ff,  75-76 


Index 


401 


Genoa,  it.  290 

Genseric,  i.  14,  370,  371;  ii.  2,5,  8 

George  of  Antioch,  admiral,  ii.  263,  264 

Saint,  ii.  212 

Georgius  Cedrenus,  ii.  100-101 ,  107 
Gerace,  ii.  207 
Gerami,  ii.  211-212 
Gerard,  ii.  168-169,  178 
Gherardesca,  Ugolino  della,  ii.  312 
Ghibellines,  i.  10;   ii.  303,  309,  310 
Gibbon,  ii.  12,  40,  260,  261 
Gildilas,  ii.  5 

Girgenti,  i.  37;  ii.  74,  204,  213,  247 
Gisulf,  ii.  175,  195-196 
Gladiators,  revolt  of,  i.  332-334 
Godfrey,  son  of  Judith  of  Evreux,  ii.  250 
Golden  Shell,  the,  i.  71;  ii.  113,  116,  226 
Goletta,  ii.  357 
Gordianus,  ii.  42 
Goths,  i.  10,  ii,  22-23:  ii.  1-35 
Gracchi,  i.  304 
Gracchus,  Caius,  i.  317 
Granary  of  Rome,  Sicily  called  the,  i.  21, 

289;  ii.  39 

Grappling-irons,  first  used,  i.  252 
Grasshoppers,  plague  of,  i.  314 
Great  Captain,  the,  ii.  349 
Great  Count.     See  under  Roger 
Great  Schism,  ii   67 
Greek  Orthodox  Church,  ii.  67 
Gregorius  Asbesta,  ii   67 
Grisar,  Professor,  ii.  47 
Guaimar,  ii   130,  140-141,  153  ff.,  174 
Guelphs,  ii.  303 
Guiscard,  Robert,  ii.  163  ff.,  172,  176,  193, 

246,  280 

Guy  of  Salerno,  ii.  175,  182,  232 
Gylippus,  i.  134-146;  ii.  74 

H 

Hadranum,  i.  199 
Hadrian,  i.  346 
Haemus,  i.  8 
Hallam,  i.  58 
Hamilcar,  i.  69-73,  201 
Hamilcar  Barca,  i.  259,  266  267 
Hamud,  ii.  247 

Hannibal,  the  second,  i.  154-157 
Hannibal,  son  of  Barca,  i.  264,  267  ff. 
'  Harbour  of  God,'  ii.  3 
Harmonia,  i.  274 
Harun  al  Rashid,  ii.  108 
Hasdrubal,  i.  201 
Heinz,  ii   295 
Heliopolis,  i.  42,  53 
Henna,  i.  171,  279,  296;   ii.  74 
VOL.    II 


Henry  the  Second,  Emperor,  ii.  133-136 

Third,  the  '  Black,'  Emperor,  ii. 

161-163,  170  ff.,  189 
Fourth,   Emperor,  ii.   189,  192, 

246,  253,  278 
Sixth,  Emperor,  ii.  267, 269,  282- 

285 
Eighth  of  England,  ii.  354,  355, 

358 

Hephxstus,  i.  2,  34 
Heraclides,  i.  191,  192,  194 
Hermae,  mutilation  of  the,  i.  iio-m 
Hermocrates,  i.  104,  145,  157-158 
Hermodamas.  i.  45,  57 
Hesione,  i.  5 
Hiero  of  Syracuse,  i  78,  86,  93 

the  Second,  i.  86,  228  ff.,  260-261,  272 
Hieronymus,  i.  272-273 
Hildebrand,   ii.    171,  190-191,   194  ff.,  236. 

See  Pope  Gregory  the  Seventh 
Himera,  i.  3,  37,  66,  71-72 
battle  of,  102 
destroyed,  156-157 
Himilcon,  i.  161,  167-169,  174-179 
Hippo,  i.  203 
Hippocrates,  i.  69 
Hippotes,  i.  5 
Hodgkin,  ii.  23,  47-49 
Holm,  Adolf,  i  8,  28,  67,  112,  182,  185-186, 

226,  234,  314-316;  ii.  23 
Holy  Ghost,  Church  of  the,  ii.  318,  321 
Horace,  i.  14;   ii.  123,  255 
Hortensius,  i.  321,  334,  336,  337 
Hugh  of  Jersey,  ii.  242 
Humphrey    of    Apulia,    ii.   139,    142,   172, 

176,  183 
Huns,  i.  370 

Ibn-al-Hawwas,  ii.  199,  201,  215 

Ibn-at-Timnah,  ii.  199,  204,  206,  207 

Ibn-el-Athir,  ii.  253 

Ibn  Haukal,  ii.  116-123,  227 

Ibn  Khaldoun,  ii.  77,  78 

Ibrahim,  ii.  70 

Ibycus,  i.  45 

Icetes,  i.  199,  203,  204,  226 

Idalian  Venus,  i   6 

Ignatius,   Patriarch  of  Constantinople,   ii. 

67 

'  I  Mafiusi  di  la  Vicari,'  ii.  368 
mages,  war  of  the,  ii.  55,  60-66 
ndividuality  of  Greeks,  i.  102,  245-246 
ndulph,  ii.  35 
nessa,  i.  104 

sabel  of  England,  ii.  299 
sabella  of  Aragon,  ii.  270 

2L> 


402 


Index 


Ischia,  i.  26 

Isthmian  Games,  i.  202 

Italus,  i.  9 


Tacob,  Bishop  of  Catania,  ii   65 
James  of  Aragon,  ii.  305 
Majorca,  ii.  332 

Japanese  and  Greeks  compared,  i.  350 
Joan  the   First  of  Naples,  'Mad  Joan,'  ii. 

335-344 

Second  of  Naples,  ii.  344 
Joanna  of  England,  ii.  279,  281 
John,  grandson  of  Vitalian,  ii.  34 
of  Castile,  ii   335 

Procida,  ii.  316,  317,  318 
the  Moor,  ii.  299,  301 
Jourdain,  ii.  242,  243,  244,  245,  250 
Judith  of  Evreux,  ii.  205,  209,  250 
Julian  the  Apostate,  i.  367 
Justin,  ii.  8-n 

the  Second,  ii.  42 
Justinian,  ii.  6,  n,  15-41,  42,  53 
the  Second,  ii.  60 

K 

Kalsa,  ii.  227 

Katherine  of  Aragon,  ii.  335 

Kasr  el  Hadid,  ii.  77 

Kasr  Janna.     See  Henna 

Khalessah,  ii.  118 

Kore,  i.  3 

Kronos,  i.  2 

Kyane,  i.  3,  262 

Kylon,  i.  60 

L 

La  Cava,  ii.  256 

Laestrygones,  i.  2,  34 

Lamachus,  i.  114,  115,  117 

Laomedon,  i.  5 

Latomia  dei  Cappucini,  i.  147 

Latomie,  i.  147,  264.  330 

Lauria,  Roger  di,  ii.  332 

Lee,  Nathaniel,  i.  102 

Legates,  i.  288 

Legion,  Roman,  i.  278 

Leibnitz,  i.  303 

Leo  the  Isaurian,  Emperor,  ii.  60 

Leontini,  i.  69,  79,  103,  104,  171;   ii.  75 

Lepidus,  i.  341-342 

Leptines,  i.  174 

Lesbos,  i.  48 

Lewis  the  Second,  king  of  Franks,  ii.  102 
Seventh  of  France,  ii   263-264 
Ninth  of  France,  ii.  269,  298,  304, 
315 


Lewis  the  Twelfth  of  France,  ii.  349,  350 

Thirteenth  of  France,  ii.  270,  336 
Fourteenth  of  France,  ii.  336 
Lilybaeum,  besieged  by  Rome,  i.  257-258 

Caesar's  fleet  at,  i.  338 
Lipari,  i.  224 

naval  battle  off,  i   254 
Locusts,  plague  of,  in  Sicily,  ii.  75 
Logothetes,  ii.  15 
Lombards,  ii.  28,  37,  63 
Lothair,  Emperor,  ii.  261 
Louis  Napoleon,  i.  217 
Lucan,  ii.  280 

Lucera  de'  Saraceni,  ii.  294,  297 
Lucy,  Saint,  i.  369;  ii.  144 
I.uigi  of  Taranto,  ii.  343 
I.uitprand,  ii.  64 
Luke,  Saint,  i.  358 
I.ydia,  i.  50 
Lyons,  Council  of,  ii.  295 


Mabrica,  ii.  216 

'  Mad  Joan,'  ii.  335 

Maffiusi,  i   305 

Mafia,  i.  68,  292;  ii.  363-385 

Magians.  i.  49 

Mainon,  i.  225,  226 

Majo  of  Bari,  ii.  271,  274 

'  Malmsey,"  ii.  52 

Malta,  ii.  78,  248,  270 

'  Malvasia'  grapes,  ii.  52-53 

Mamercus,  i.  203,  204 

Mamertines,  i.  226,  230-231,  292 

Manfred,  ii.  269,  295,  299-309 

Maniaces,  George,  ii.  142,  144-145,  151-154 

Manuel,  Emperor,  ii.  264,  272 

Marcellus,   Marcus   Claudius,   i.    240,    242 

275-276,  280-283;    ii.  115 
Marcus  Aurelius,  i.  369 
Mare  Morto,  i.  341 
Margaret  of  Navarre,  ii.  277 
Marius,  i.  316,  317,  321 
Markwald  of  Anweiler,  ii.  286,  287,  288 
'  Marriage  of  Hebe  '  of  Epicharmus,  i.  83 
Marsala,  ii.  3,  233 
Marseilles,  i.  38 
Martian,  i.  355,  357-358 
Martin  the  First  of  Sicily,  ii.  335,  344 

Second  of  Sicily,  ii.  335 
Martorana,  Church  of  the,  ii.  255,  361 
Massilia,  i.  38 
Matilda,  Countess,  ii.  188 
Matthew,  Chancellor,  ii.  278,  283 
Mausoleum  of  Hadrian,  ii.  13,  22 
Mazzara,  ii.  240,  242 


Index 


403 


Medici,  Catherine  de',  ii.  99 

Giovanni  de',  ii.  356 
Medina,  ii.  54 
Megallis,  i.  297,  299 
Megalopolis,  i.  216 
Megara  Hyblaea,  i.  36 
Mehdia,  ii.  274 

Meles,  ii.  131-133  t 

Melfi,  ii.  146,  195,  238 

treaty  of,  ii.  194 
Memphis,  i.  42 
Menecrates,  i.  341 
Merenptah,  i.  9 
Messina,  i.  2,  18,  37,  79,;  ii.  279-281,  292 

battle  of,  i.  230-231 

massacre  of  French  in,  ii.  321  322 

occupied  by  Romans,  i.  232-233 

taken  by  Great  Count,  ii.  202 

Normans,  ii.  143 
.  Saracens,  ii.  75 

Metapontum,  i.  37 
Metellus.  Quintus,  i.  257,  336 
Methodius,  ii.  65-66 
'  Meurtriere,'  i.  277 
Michael,  Patriarch,  ii.  180-181 
Milan,  ii.  15,  357 
Milazzo,  i.  6 

naval  battle  off,  i.  252 
Mileta,  ii.  208 
Mileto,  ii.  207 
'  Milk  Hill,'  ii   31 
Milo,  i.  60,  64 
Miltas,  i.  190 
Minos,  i.  4 
Mirabbet,  ii.  292,  193 
Misilmeri,  battle  of,  ii.  222 
Mithridates.  i.  311 
Mnesarchus,  i.  45,  52 
Modica,  captured  by  Saracens,  ii.  75 
Mohammed,  ii.  53 

the  Second,  ii.  254 
Mohammedanism,  ii.  54,  69,  142  ff. 
Moloch,  i.  263 
Monasteries  in  Sicily,  ii.  46 
Moncada,  John,  ii.  345 
Monembasia,  ii.  52 
Monotheism,  i.  49 
Monreale,  ii.  214,  255,  257,  278 
Monte  Cassino,  ii.  134,  135,  154,  282,  300 
Gargano,  ii.  124-126 
Lettere,  ii.  29 
Poloso,  ii.  216 
'Morals  upon  Job,"  ii.  44 
Morgana,  i.  16 
Morgantia,  i.  279 
Motta  Santa  Anastasia,  ii.  347 


Motye,  i.  173-176 

Mugello,  ii.  16 

MUhlberg,  battle  of,  ii.  354 

Mummius,  i.  364 

Muntaner,  Ramon,  ii   324,  332 

Muratori,  ii.  297,  299,  302,  322,  342 

Muro,  ii.  337 

Murviedro,  i.  269 

Mylffi,  i.  6 

Mysteries  of  the  ancients,  i.  48 

Mytistratum,  i.  253 

N 

Naples,  i.  10,  26;   ii.  18,  309,  313 

Narses,  ii.  6,  27-37 

Naulochus,  battle  of,  i.  342 

Navy,  Norman,  ii.  225 

Naxos.  i.  31.  36,  69,  171 

Neapolis,  i.  95,  119 

Nebuchadnezzar,  i.  41 

Nelson,  Lord,  121 

Nemours,  Duke  of.  ii.  351,  352 

Nero,  i.  368 

Newton,  Sir  Isaac,  i.  303 

Nicetas,  ii.  90,  99 

Nicias,  108-109,  114,  115,  117,  122-146 

Nicotera,  ii.  242,  246 

Noto,  ii   242,  248 

Novello,  Guido,  ii.  303 

Nympha,  Saint,  i.  369 

o 

Octavian.     See  Ca-sar,  Augustus 

Odes,  Pindaric,  i.  82 

Odoacer,  i.  371,  372,  374;  ii.  2,  3.  6-7,  9 

'  CEdipus  Tyrannus,'  i.  351 

Ofanto,  ii.  133,  271 

Olympic  Games,  i.  43,  64,  79-80 

Olympius,  exarch,  ii.  57 

Omerta,  ii.  361 

Ophelias,  i.  218 

Orations  against  Verres,  i.   315,  320,   323, 

335-338 

Orestes,  i.  6;  ii.  2 
Oroetes,  i.  55 
Orsini,  ii.  317,  336-337 
Ortygia,  i.  3.  95,  119,  169 
Ostrogoths,  ii.  2 

Otto  the  Fourth,  Emperor,  ii.  289 
Ouranos,  i.  2 


Palagonia,  i.  308 

Palatine  Chapel,  the,  ii.  255 

Paleologus,  ii.  317 


404 


Index 


Palermo,  i.  16;  ii.  n,  258,  362 

Arab  life  in,  i.  22-23 

besieged  by  Guiscard,  ii.  227-232 

chief  city  of  Sicily,  ii.  114 

Emperor  Frederick  the  Second  born  in, 
ii.  285 

in  tenth  century,  117-124 

taken  by  Saracens,  ii.  75 
Palici,  grove  of,  i.  307-308,  309 
Pancras,  Saint,  i.  31,  355,358 
Pandolph  the  Fourth  of  Capua,  '  Wolf  of 
the  Abruzzi,'   ii.    137,    140-141,   154, 
154  ff.,  169 

Panormus,  i.  103,  250,  256 
Papyrus,  i.  42,  119,  121,  261-263;   "•  II3 
Parma,  battle  of,  ii.  295 
Parthenon,  ii.  255 
Patrimonies,  ii.  38-39 
Patrinus,  John,  ii   87 
Pavia,  ii.  38,  58,  290 

battle  of,  356 
Paul,  Saint,  i.  358-360 
Pelagius,  ii.  20,  24 
Pelasgians,  i.  8 
Peloponnesian  War,  i.  103 
Perenos,  Duke  of  Italy,  ii.  215-216 
Pergamus,  i.  305-306 
Pericles,  i.  351 

Persephone,  i.  3,  197;   ii.  203 
Perugia,  ii.  22 
Pesaro,  ii.  19 

Pescara,  Marquis  of,  ii.  356 
Petalism,  law  of,  i.  99 
Peter  the  Apostle,  i.  353,  356 
Hermit,  ii.  254 

Saint.  Patrimony  of,  ii.  38 
Tomb  of,  ii.  45 

Second  of  Aragon,  ii.  288 

Third  of  Aragon,  i.  10;  ii.  269,  314,  317, 
323-333 

Subdeacon,  ii.  46-47 
Pezza  di  Sangue,  i.  271 
Pherecydes,  i.  48 
Philip  the  First  of  France,  ii.  251 

Second  of  France,  '  Augustus,"  ii. 

280,  290 

Fourth  of  Spain,  ii.  270 
of  Hapsburg,  ii.  336 

Macedon,  i.  185 
Philippi,  battle  of,  i.  339 
Philistis,  i.  229 
'  Philosopher  King,"  ii.  291 
Philosophy,  of  the  ancients,  i.  49 

of  Pythagoras,  i.  58,  58-61 
Phoenicia,  i.  50 
Photinus,  ii.  71 


Photius,  ii.  67,  181 
Phyton,  i.  181 
Piana  dei  Greci,  i.  344 
Pierleone,  ii.  260,  261 
Pilate,  Pontius,  i.  354 
Pindar,  i.  80,  82  83 
Pirates,  Barbary,  ii.  354 

Cilician,  and  Verres,  i.  326-328 
Greek,  i.  26 

were  slave-traders,  i.  292-293 
Pisa,  ii.  212,  261 
Pisistratus,  i.  47 
Plato,  i.  63,  188-189 
Plemmyrium,  119 
Pliny,  ii.  129 
'  Plus  oultre,'  ii.  355 
Pluton,  i.  3 
Poetry,  lyric,  i.  80 
Policastro,  ii.  215 
Polycrates,  i.  45,  46,  52,  55 
Polyphemus,  i.  2,  5,  33,  34,  224 
Pompeii,  ii.  129 
Pompeius,  Cneius,  i.  317,  338 

Sextus,  i.  339-342,  372 
Pope  — 

Agatho  of  Palermo,  ii.  60 
Alexander  the  Second,  ii.  212,  236 
Third,  ii.  272 
Fourth,  ii.  303 
Sixth,  ii.  350 
Benedict  the  Eighth,  ii.  131,  132-136 

Ninth,  ii.  161,  170 

Clement  the  Second,  ii.  162-163,  I7° 
Fourth,  ii.  306,  315 
Sixth,  ii.  338 
Seventh,  ii.  356 
Conon,  ii.  60 

Damasus  the  Second,  ii.  170 
Gregory  the  First,  the  '  Great,"  ii.  35, 

38  ff.,  42  ff.,  53 
Second,  ii.  63-64 
Sixth,  ii.  161 
Seventh,  ii.  236,  239.    See 

Hildebrand 
Ninth,  ii.  293,  294 
Honorius  the  Third,  ii.  293 
Innocent  the  Second,  ii.  261 

Third,  ii.  286,  287,  289 
Fourth,  ii.  299,  301 
John  the  First,  ii.  10,  ii 
Leo  the  Second,  ii.  60 
Fourth,  ii.  in 
Ninth,    ii.     170-173,    176-181, 

1 88 

Tenth,  it.  353 
Thirteenth,  ii.  in 


Index 


405 


Pope- 

Martin  the  First,  ii.  57-58 

Fourth,  ii.  316,  322,  333 
Nicholas  the  First,  ii.  67 

Second,  ii.  191 
Third,  ii.  317 
Sergius  the  First,  ii.  60 
Stephen  the  Ninth,  ii.  189-190 
Sylvester  the  Third,  ii.  161 
Urban  the  Fourth,  ii.  303-306 
Victor  the  Second,  ii.  188-189 

Ponte  Guiscardo,  ii.  209 

Portella  di  Mare,  ii.  378 

Poseidon,  i.  2 

Poseidonia,  i.  37 

Praetorian  cohort,  i.  288 

Praetors,  i.  286,  287-288 

Procopius,  ii.  23,  24,  30-35 

Proculus.  i.  240 

Propraetors,  i.  286-287,  3I7~3I& 

Provincial  system,  Roman,  i.  286-288 

Ptolemy  Soter,  i.  224 

Punic  war,  cause  of  first,  i.  231 

'  Pyrrhic  victories,'  i.  227 

Pyrrhus,  i.  14,  224,  226-228 

Pythagoras,  i.  44-61 

Pythias,  Damon  and,  i.  185 


Quaestors,  i.  287 

R 

Kagusa,  ii.  75 

Rainulf  of  Aversa,   ii.    137,   139    ff.,    146, 

i53 

Tricanocte,  ii.  159-160,  169 
Rametta,  ii.  143,  202 
Randazzo,  i.  3;  ii.  326 
Randolph,  ii.  157-159 
'  Ransom  of  Hector,'  i.  186 
Raspe,  Henry,  ii.  295 
Ravello,  ii.  147,  362 
Ravenna,  ii.  12,  14 

Raymond,  Count  of  Provence,  ii.  245,  251 
Reggio,  ii.  23,  183,  196,  247 
Regulus,  i.  255,  257,  351,  352:  ii.  107 
Renascence,  art  of  the,  ii.  359-361 
Rene  of  Anjou,  ii.  344 
R^postelle,  Guillaume,  ii.  131 
Rhegium,  i.  37,  76,  180 
Richard  of  Aversa,  ii   169,  176,  186 
Capua,  ii.  191,  235-238 
the   First   of   Normandy,  ii.    138- 

139.  2°5 

Second  of  Normandy,  ii.  131 

Lion-hearted,  ii.  279.  280-282 

of  San  Germane,  ii.  277,  278,  283 


Richer,  Abbot,  ii.  154-156 
Ricimer,  ii.  1-2 
Ricottaro,  ii.  369 
Rimini,  i.  271 
Ring,  Polycrates',  i.  52 
Ritter,  i.  62 

Robert  of  Bari,  ii.  312,  313 
Clermont,  ii.  251 
Flanders,  ii.  313 
the     Second    of     Normandy,    the 

'  Devil,'  ii.  137 
the  '  Wise,'  ii.  337 
Roeth,  i.  62 
Roger  Bursa,  ii.  239,  246,  259 

the  Great  Count,  ii.   115,   183,   1971 

230  ff.,  246-247,  251,  361 
of  Hoveden,  ii.  280 
King  of  Sicily,  i.  13,  14,  16;  ii.  250, 

259-267,  359 

Rollo  of  Normandy,  ii.  127 
Romagna,  ii.  245 
'  Romare,'  i.  45 

Rome,  i.  235,  345;   ii.  12-14,  44,  357 
Romulus  Augustulus,  i.  371 ;  ii.  2 
Rossano,  ii.  21 
Rupilius  Publilius,  i.  301-302 


Saguntum,  i.  269 

Saint  Elmo,  lights  of,  i.  198 

Saint  Sophia,  mosque  of,  ii.  119 

Salamis,  battle  of,  i.  41,  74-75,  10* 

Salerno,  ii.  129 

Salt  mines,  i.  2t 

Salvius,  i.  309-310 

Samnites,  i.  234 

Samos,  i.  45 

San  Germano,  ii.  263 

San  Giovanni,  catacombs  of,  i.  355,  356,  357 

San  Giovanni  degli  Eremiti,  ii.  318,  321 

San  Giuliano,  i    330 

San  Marco,  ii.  167,  168  . 

San  Pantaleo,  i.  174 

Sant'  Agata,  ii.  140 

Santa   Maria  del   Carmine,  Church   of,  ii 

Santa  Maria  1'  Incoronata,  ii.  260 

Saracens,  ii.  70-124,  209-211 

Sardinia,  ii.  n 

Satyrus,  i.  312,  314 

Scalea,  ii.  184-185 

Schis6,  Cape,  i.  31 

Scipio,  Publius,  i.  183,  289-491 

Scribonia,  i.  340 

Scylla,  ii.  196 

Second  Punic  war,  i.  268-283 


406 


Index 


Segesta,  i.  92-93,  105-107,  222-223 

Selinus,  i.  37,  71,  73,  89-90,  154-156 

Seljuks,  ii.  217,  263 

Semiramis,  gardens  of,  i.  42 

Sentinum,  battle  of,  i.  234 

Severus,  Septimius,  i.  346 

Serlo,  ii.  211,  233-234 

Sertorius,  i.  330 

Sfax,  ii.  273 

Sfida  di  Barletta,  the,  ii.  350 

Shelley,  i   121 

Ships  of  the  Greeks,  i.  27 

first  five-banked,  i.  172 

of  the  Normans,  ii.  225 
Sicanians,  i.  4,  7 
Sicelians,  i.  8,  29,  32  ff. ,  292 
Sicilian  Vespers,!.  10,68;  ii. 262, 269, 31 8-321 

war  of  the,  ii.  321-333 
Sicilian  war,  i.  232 
Sidon,  i   50,  51 

Sigelgaita,  ii.  195,  204,  232,  239,  246 
Sikelos,  i.  2 
Simichus,  i.  66 
Simonides  of  Ceos,  i.  80-81 
Slave  insurrections,  i.  297-312 
Slave-market  at  Delos,  i.  292 
Slavery  in  Sicily,  ii.  52 
Smerdis  the  Magian,  i.  54 
Socrates,  i.  63 
Sophocles,  i.  83 

Spanish  Succession,  war  of,  i.  10 
Sparta,  Alcibiades  at,  i.  126-127 
Spartacus,  i.  323,  332-334,  364 
Specific  gravity  discovered,  i.  240 
Spinus,  ii.  25 

Stabian  Castellamare,  i.  18 
Stephen,  Bishop  of  Acerenza,  ii.  148 
Stephanos,  ii.  144-145. 
Sthenius,  i.  329-330 
Suffetes,  i.  70 
Sulla,  i.  316,  321 
Sulphur  mines,  i.  21 
Sword  of  Damocles,  i.  185 
Sybaris,  i.  37,  43,  60,  63,  64 
Sybarites,  i.  64 
Sylvia,  ii.  42 
Symmachus,  ii.  10 
Synod  of  — 

Chalcedon,  ii.  41-42 

Constantinople,  ii.  41 

Pavia,  ii.  161 
Syracuse,  i.  37,  79,  94-96,  101 

besieged  by  Athenians,  117,  130  ff.,  146 

colonized  by  Corinthians,  i.  201 

destruction  of,  by  Moslems,  ii.  53,  79  fF. , 
112-113 


Syracuse  — 

taken  by  Romans,  i.  276-283 
under  Hiero,  i.  86 

T 

Tagliacozzo,  battle  of,  ii.  310 
Tancred  of  Hauteville,  ii.  138-139,  267,  270 

Sicily,  ii.  279-283 
Taormina,  i.  31 ;  ii.  240,  243,  244 
Taranto,  ii.  151,  154,  196 
Tarantula  spiders,  ii.  214 
Tarentum,  i.  14,  17,  182 
Tauromenium,  i.  31,  66,  302 
Taurus,  i.  36 
Teano,  Count  of,  ii.  166 
Teias,  ii.  29,  32  33 
Temple  of  — 

Aphrodite,  i.  343 

Apollo,  i.  322 

Artemis,  i.  6 

Athene,  i.  91  92 

Bel,  i.  42 

Castor  and  Pollux,  i.  336 

Hera  at  Crotona,  i.  224 

Hera  at  Girgenti,  i.  349 

Idalian  Venus,  i.  6 

Licinian  Hera,  i.  66 

Pallas,  i.  322 

Saturn,  ii.  255 

Segesta,  i.  88,  92,  223 
Temples  of — 

Akragas,  i.  88 

Selinus,  i.  88 

Temples,  Phoenician,  i.  263-264 
Terina,  i.  37 
Termini,  159,  207 
Terracina,  i.  8 

Terranova,  i.  213.     See  Gela 
Thales,  i.  45,  48,  50 
Theatre  of  Taormina,  i.  346-349 
Thebes,  i.  42 
Theocles,  i.  29 
Theocritus,  i.  13,  16 
Theodora,  ii.  19 
Theodora  Senatrix,  ii    162 
Theodoric,  ii.  2,  3,  6-10,  23,  37 
Theodorus,  i.  46,  47,  52 
Theodosius,  Emperor,  i.  370 

monk,  describes  siege  of  Syra- 
cuse, ii.  79-98 
Theodotus,  ii.  75 
Thermse,  i.  207 
Theron  of  Akragas,  i.  69,  78 
Thira,  ii.  77 
Thrasybulus,  i.  94-96 
Thrasydaeus,  i.  86-87 


Inde: 


407 


Thrasimene,  battle  of,  i.  271 

Thucles,  i   29,  36 

Thucydides,  i.  9,  no 

'  Thunder-town,'  the,  i.  3 

Thymbris,  Mount,  i.  36 

Tiberius  the  Second,  Emperor,  ii.  44 

Ticinum,  ii.  35 

Ticinus,  i.  269 

Tiles,  books  written  on,  i.  42 

Timocrates,  i.  191 

Timoleon,  i.  196-205 

Tivoli,  ii.  21 

Toe'ni,  Raoul  de,  ii.  131,  132 

Tomacelli,  ii.  324 

Tomb  of — 

Archimedes,  i.  320 

Saint  Peter,  ii.  45 
Tombs,  Greek  and  Roman,  i.  356 

Christian,  i.  357 
Torres,  ii.  345 
Totila,  ii.  16-28 

Tower  of  Silence,  Parsees',  i.  356 
Trani,  ii.  160,  161 

Count  of,  ii.  238 
Trapani,  i.  2,  19,  105,  240,  243 
Trent,  ii.  290 
Trezza,  i.  6 

Tribunal!,  Palazzo  dei,  ii.  346,  362 
Trilogy,  tragic,  i.  85 
Trinakros,  i.  2 
Triocala,  i.  310 
Tripoli,  ii.  263 
Trogilos,  i.  36 
Troia,  ii.  134 

Troina,  ii.  205,  206,  207,  209-211 
Trypho,  i.  310 
Tudextifen,  ii.  147 
Tunis,  i.  216;  ii.  274,  315,  357 
Tuscany,  ii.  303 
Two  Sicilies,  i.  10;  ii.  262,  334 
Tyche,  i.  95,  119 

U 

Ulysses,  i.  5.  6,  26,  217,  224 
Unities,  the  three,  i.  85-86 
Utrecht,  peace  of,  ii.  270 


Vandals,  i.  ii,  370-371,  373 
Varro,  i.  271 
Venice,  ii.  16,  273 
Venosa,  ii.  147,  246 
Verona,  ii   16,  310 
battle  of,  ii.  2 
Verres.  i.  10,  23,  286,  318,  321-338;  ii.  5, 129 


Versification  among  the  ancients,  i.  46 

Vesuvius,  ii.  129 

Vettius,  i.  306-307 

Victor  Amadeus,  i.  10 

Vienna,  ii.  6,  284 

Villani,  ii.  322 

Vindomar,  i.  275 

Virginias,  i.  352 

Vitalian,  i.  240;   ii.  34 

Vitiges,  ii.  12,  15 

Vulcan,  i.  33 

W 

Walter  of  the  Mill,  ii.  278 
Brienne,  ii.  287 
War  of  the  linages,  ii.  55 
War  chariots,  first  appearance  of,  i.  176 
William  of  Apulia,  ii.  152,  259 

Bras-de-Fer,  ii.  139,  142,  146,  150, 

152-161 

the    First  of  England,    the   '  Con- 
queror," ii.  205 
of  Evreux,  ii.  205 
Grantmesnil,  ii.  248 
Hauteville,  ii.  187 
Holland,  ii.  295 
Montreuil,  ii.  235 
Salerno,  ii.  184 
the  First   of  Sicily,  the  '  Bad,'  ii. 

267,  271-276 
Second  of  Sicily   the  '  Good," 

ii.  267,  268,  276-279 
Third  of  Sicily,  ii   268,  283 
the  Swine,  ii.  292,  293 
Wolf  of   the   Abruzzi.     See  Pandolph  of 

Capua. 

Wolsey,  ii.  354 
Worms,  assembly  at,  ii.  170 


Xerxes,  i.  50,  54,  69 
Ximenes,  Cardinal,  ii.  353 


Zacynthus,  i.  190 

Zama,  battle  of,  i.  268,  283,  289,  291 
Zancle,  i.  2,  18,  37,  69.     See  Messin* 
Zante,  i.  190 
Zeno  of  Elea,  i.  14 
Emperor,  ii.  2 
Zeus,  i.  3 
Zeuxis,  i.  66 
Zisa  palace,  ii.  275,  362 
Zoroaster,  i.  44,  51 
Zurita,  ii.  350 


Ave  Roma   Immortalis 

STUDIES  FROM  THE  CHRONICLES  OF  ROMK 

BY 

FRANCIS  MARION   CRAWFORD 

In  two  Volumes.     Fully  Illustrated  with  Photogravures 

and  Drawings  in  the  Text,    Cloth.    Crown 

8vo.     Price  $6.00  ret 

Dr.  S.   WEIR   MITCHELL  writes: 

"  1  have  not  for  a  long  while  read  a  book  which  pleased  me  more 
^.han  Mr.  Crawford's  '  Roma.'  It  is  cast  in  a  form  so  original  and  so 
available  that  it  must  surely  take  the  place  of  all  other  books  about 
Rome  which  are  needed  to  help  one  to  understand  its  story  and  its 
archaeology.  .  ,  .  The  book  has  for  me  a  rare  interest." 

NEW  YORK  TRIBUNE 

"  Mr.  Crawford  knows  his  Rome  thoroughly,  and.  furthermore,  it  is 
perhaps  just  because  of  his  profession  that  he  has  succeeded  where  so 
many  have  failed.  The  history  of  Rome  is  packed  with  romance. 
What  more  fitting  than  that,  for  the  purpose  of  the  general  reader,  it 
should  be  retold  by  a  man  with  inborn  sympathy  for  the  human  side 
of  history,  and  an  equally  instructive  narrative  gift." 

HAMILTON   W.   MABIE 

"  With  a  lapicl  hand,  and  in  a  series  of  vigorous  strokes,  Mr.  Crawford 
makes  us  see  the  'City  of  the  Hills'  seven  centuries  before  Christ;  he 
recalls  the  Rome  of  the  great  age  of  conquests;  of  the  Empire;  of 
those  years  when  the  fires  of  life  were  dying;  of  the  age  of  the  bar- 
barians; of  the  middle  age;  of  the  Renaissance;  and  of  the  modern 
time.  The  history  of  Rome  is  essentially  a  story,  and  Mr.  Crawford's 
gift  as  a  story-teller  is  a  grand  qualification  for  this  work." 


THE    MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

66  FIFTH   AVENUE,   NEW   YORK 


Writings  of  F.  Marion  Crawford 


12mo.      Cloth 


Via  Crucis Price  11.50 

Saracinesca.    2  vols.    Illustrated  .     Price  $5.00 


PRICE 

Mr.  Isaacs       .     .     .  $1.00 

Dr.  Claudius    .     .     .  .   i.oo 

A  Roman  Singer   .     .  .1.00 

To  Leeward     .     .     .  .   i .  oo 

An  American  Politician  .    i.oo 

Zoroaster i.oo 

A  Tale  of  a  Lonely  Parish    i  .00 

Saracinesca    .     .     .  .1.00 

Don  Orsino      .     .     .  .1.00 

Sant'  Hario     .     .     .  .1.00 

Marzio's  Crucifix  .      .  .1.00 

Children  of  the  King  .  .   i.oo 

Pietro  Ghisleri      .     .  .1.00 

Marion  Darche     .     .  .1.00 

Katharine  Lauderdale  .    i.oo 


The  Ralstons  .     .     .      J 
Paul  Patoff      .... 
With  the  Immortals  .     . 
Greifenstein    .... 
A  Cigarette  Makers  Ro= 

mance       .... 
The  Witch  of  Prague 
The  Three  Fates  .     .     . 

Corleone 

Taquisara.      2  vols. 
Casa  Braccio.     2  vols.    . 
Love  in  Idleness 
Adam  Johnstone's  Son  and 

A  Rose  of  Yesterday . 


PRICE 
I.OO 

I.OO 
I.OO 
I.OO 

I.OO 
I.OO 

I.OO 

1 .00 

2.00 
2.OO 
2.OO 

1.50 


THE   MACM1LLAN    COMPANY 

66  FIFTH   AVENUE,    NEW   YORK 


/  1OO 


3  1205  00903  3778 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A     000  893  457     2 


